


All About Us

by roxzation



Series: All About Us [1]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Friendship/Love, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1526264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxzation/pseuds/roxzation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during season 1 "Bloodlines" What if Damon hadn't shown up, Katherine came to Elena's rescue instead. Will Elena Gilbert be just a means to an end?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

Elena Gilbert grips the steering wheel tightly as she accelerates out of the Salvatore’s driveway and onto the empty road.  How could she have been so stupid to fall for him?  He was that charming guy every girl in school would fall for, with that natural perfect hair and brooding look.

She blinks back tears and wipes them angrily.  Katherine, Stefan’s former flame back from 1864 that looked exactly like her; it felt as though she was looking at a mirror reflection of herself. How is it they look exactly alike?

It doesn’t matter anymore; she would break up with him tomorrow and find a way to move past the fact that he was most likely dating her because she shared the same face as this Katherine.  Didn’t he warn her to stay away from him?  She thinks furiously and remembers their conversation in the car.

“You saw what happened today right? You understand why we can’t see each other,” She had replied, “I’m starting to see a lot of things, Stefan. But I was already buried in all this bad stuff long before I met you.”

“This is different.”

That was the warning, but she never realized what he meant until now.  Now that she had seen who Katherine was.  She grabbed her things, tossed the necklace he’d given to her on his table and rushed downstairs.

She peeled out of the driveway immediately, wanting nothing more but to put plenty of distance from the vampire who could easily meet her at her driveway instead.  She was so far into her thoughts that by the time she noticed a lone hooded figure standing in the middle of the road, it was far too late to stop.  The force of the impact flips her car over, the windscreen cracks from the sheer brutal force of the crash, trapping her to her seat upside-down.

Elena coughs and tries to get her bearings.  She turns and sees the man lying on the ground, unmoving.  “I killed him”, she thinks guiltily.  She yanks on her seatbelt and tries fruitlessly to unbuckle it. 

Suddenly, she hears an odd popping noise and turns her head.  To her horror, she watches as the hooded figure slowly starts to raise his leg, popping it back into place, joint by joint he put himself back together until he could stand again.  Frantically, she starts yanking harder on the jammed seatbelt, trying to break free.  He starts moving towards her slowly until his boots stop right in front of her car window.

Elena whimpers and tears start to form at the corner of her eyes.  Her hands shake as she struggles desperately against her restraints.  Regrets start to fill her mind as she thinks back to how she should have just confronted Stefan when she had seen the photo.  Her cowardice had led her to this perilous situation.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the hooded figure lower himself.  Fear overcomes her and she starts screaming, all the while frantically tugging at her restraints.  Just as the hooded face is about to come into view, he suddenly jerks up, an instant later, he flashes away, leaving Elena confused short tugging at the seatbelt and leans forward to try to look out of the shattered car window.

Without warning, a second figure lands right in front of her with a huge thump.  Instinctively, Elena covers her eyes with her hands and a loud scream escapes her lips.

 

 “Well, what do we have here? Little girls should be at home, safe from big bad scary monsters,” a voice that very obviously belonged to a woman reached her ears.  Curious, Elena peeks between her fingers and the sight causes her to freeze wide in disbelief.

“Y… “You’re Katherine…?” Elena shakily manages to say.

The figure in front of her was pretty much her mirror reflection tilts her head in curiosity as she studies her human look-a-like.

 “You know of me. Did Stefan tell you that?”  Elena shakes her head hard.

The movement causes a sharp pain to shoot through her head and her vision blurred as she groaned painfully.  She feels movement on the other side and clutches her seatbelt tightly.  Her vision still blurred, she feels something move at her side.

“W… Wha… What are you do… doing?” Elena shakily stammers as the one deemed Katherine reaches towards her.

“Getting you out,” Katherine replies curtly with a vicious tug at the seat buckle.

When Elena starts trashing wildly, Katherine forces the human to look at her and compels her not to freak out.  She watches as the human stop flailing her useless hands around and then half-carries a frightened Elena out of the car who blinks owlishly at her. 

“What did you do to me?” 

Katherine smirks and ignores her as she sets Elena on her feet, checking her discreetly for injuries.  The human just collapses, unable to stand.  Rolling her eyes, the vampire catches her before she falls.  Katherine checks her pulse, feeling the human’s neck.  She runs her fingers down Elena’s straight hair. “Elena, look at me. Focus.” Her doppelganger seemed completely out of it and was fading fast. 

“What do I do with you?” Katherine sighs as Elena’s head falls against her chest and blacks out. 

~

Hours later, Elena dizzily wakes up, her head throbbing and looks around.  It takes her a while to register that her surroundings are unfamiliar to her.  She is buckled into the passenger seat of a car that most certainly isn’t hers.  She turns to her left and sees a replica of herself who may share the same face but her hair is different from her usual straight locks.  Elena feels confused and distorted for a moment until the memories of what had happened comes rushing back.  Struggling to sit up, she stares at the road then at Katherine again, who calmly glances at her and then back to the road.

“Morning.” Katherine says cheerily.

Elena crosses her arms defensively. “Where are we?” she asks.

Without taking her eyes off the road, Katherine replies: “We’re in Georgia.”

Deep in her consciousness, something felt wrong.  Yet at the same time, Elena felt that everything was the way it should be save the throbbing headache that was aching painfully.  She tried to figure out what it was that felt wrong, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.  She was sitting in the same vehicle as Stefan’s former flame, yet instead of freaking out, she was okay with it.  Even though thoughts that she was missing her first period of class came to her; or the fact that she had hit a man hard enough to send him flying and watched him simply walk it off, yet, here she was sitting calmly in a car.

She unconsciously reaches for her necklace – Stefan’s necklace – but it isn’t hanging around her neck.  She groans at her stupid mistake of falling prey to vampires.  Elena reaches for her phone and finds her jeans pocket empty. 

She narrows her eyes at the driver.  “Where’s my phone? I can’t be in Georgia. Nobody knows where I am.”

Katherine ignores her for a while, thinking the puny human would eventually stop her tirade of annoying complaints.  When it appears that the human isn’t going to give up since she starts insisting that they pull over by threatening to open the door on her side, Katherine slams her brakes.

“Ugh, you were so much more fun when you are sleeping.” Katherine groans.

 Elena opens the car door slowly and steps out.  She instantly feels light-headed and bends down.  Instinctively, Katherine flashes towards her in concern and startles Elena who instantly straightens up and freezes. 

“I’m fine,” Elena takes a step away from Katherine who quietly observes her.  “We need to go back. My aunt is going to freak out. I won’t tell anyone about this. Please just let me go.”  Elena tries to rationalize with the older vampire.

“You just had a car accident and you want me to go back. Do you know the vampire you ran over, Elena?” Katherine shakes her head as she continues speaking “Do you want another repeat of last night? No? Then get back in the car.”

Elena stands firm, crossing her arms stubbornly and protests: “This is kidnapping.”

Katherine scoffs. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic. Time-out just for five minutes, Elena Gilbert.  I’ll have you home by tonight princess. Promise.”  Receiving no more protests, she walks back to her borrowed car and sits back in the driver’s seat, waiting patiently for her human doppelganger to follow suit.  She fights back a smirk as she starts the car as soon as she hears the car door slam followed by a frustrated sigh.

As they continue driving down the empty road, a phone starts ringing. Katherine pulls Elena’s phone out of her pocket and glances at the screen.

“Stefan’s calling.” Katherine says before passing the phone to Elena.

Elena takes the phone from Katherine and stares at it for a while before pressing the reject button and tosses it into the back seat of the car.

They continue on in silence, the only noises that could be heard were the insects and the occasional vehicle that passed by as they drove down the empty road.

Just as they come up to a bar, Katherine veers sharply into the parking area and shuts down the engine.

“I’m underage.” Elena states bluntly as Katherine exits the car.

She doesn’t know if she had been heard or not but Katherine slammed the car door close and started walking towards the bar. Sighing, Elena climbs out of the car and follows after Katherine. 

Katherine struts up to the bar counter, orders shots for the both of them and compels the middle-age bartender to put them on the house.  She watches the bartender’s pupils dilate and dazedly follows her orders.  

Meanwhile, Elena takes a seat beside Katherine and glances around.  There aren’t many people around as the bar was pretty much in the middle of no-where, that and it was still very early in the morning.  Katherine pushes the glass towards her younger counterpart who shakes her head stubbornly.

“More for me then” Katherine shrugs nonchalantly as she drowns both shots.

She walks towards the billiards table and grabs one of the cue sticks from the stand.  From her spot with her enhanced hearing, she hears Elena order a coke. The sound of the drink splashing into the glass from the bottle reaches her ears clearly.  Her heart thumps a little faster than normal before steadying itself. 

A couple of graduates join her, breaking her reverie.  She smiles coyly and plays with them.  They would be her dinner later.

~

It takes a while for Elena to loosen her guard.  She glances at Katherine who is twirling around with the same college boys from earlier.  The confidence and freedom that the older vampire exudes as she dances leaves Elena feeling insecure and unbalanced.

They shared the same face and stature yet their personalities are so vastly different.  She is controlled, reserved, and always wants to do what is right.  On the other hand, her older counterpart is upbeat, carefree, seductive and playful.  The moment Katherine Pierce stepped into the bar, all eyes had focused on her, and they had practically ignored the shy, awkward Elena Gilbert that had walked in behind her.

She considers getting up from her seat to dance with Katherine, whom has managed to attract a sizeable group.  She looks down at the remainder of her drink and gathers up whatever courage she could from within her.  She gulps down her coke and walks determinedly towards the group forcing herself to ignore the urge to run back to the safety of her seat.

As she approaches the group, she wonders about what she should do to reach the surrounded vampire.  Just as she is about to come up with something, a soft pair of hands grabs her wrist and pulls her into the circle of guys who have formed a tight circle around the alluring Katherine.  Hips sway synchronically to the pulsing music; hands rise above their heads and swing loosely together.

As much as Elena didn’t want to admit it, the idea of an impromptu road trip was actually coming to be quite fun.  She had never let loose and gotten this wild before.  It would be a shame to end it.

Who would have thought she could have so much fun with a person who looked just like her, yet was so much older, more experienced, and just oozed with the right amount of confidence and allure?

Elena feels Katherine pull her in by her hip so that they were dancing more closely.  She tosses a grin at Katherine who’s already dark eyes seem to be getting even darker.  Elena, curious at first just assumes the lights must be getting dimmer to accommodate the atmosphere. 

One of the college boys start moving towards the doppelgangers. Katherine intercepts him, looks him hard in the eyes and whispers something to him.  She dances with him closely for a moment, and then tilts his neck to a side exposing his jugular.  Elena sees Katherine’s iris darken even more and watches mesmerizingly as Katherine’s face switches as her fangs sink into the boy’s throat.  Both of the doppelgangers’ eyes lock onto each other, neither one looking away until Katherine has had her fill.

Elena pushes her way out of the crowd and heads towards the exit for a breather and to process the event that had just unfolded before her eyes.  She heads towards the car and leans against the car, running her hand through her hair.  She spies her phone vibrating incessantly away in the back seat of their borrowed car.  She groans and yanks the handle open, scooping the phone and hitting answer button.

“Hey, it’s Stefan. Are you okay? Where are you, Elena? Nobody has seen you all day. Jenna is freaking out.” Stefan’s worried and urgent voice comes through the speaker.

 Elena groans as she remembers that she had forgotten to tell Aunt Jenna of her whereabouts.  She had been having so much fun with Stefan’s former lover that she had completely forgotten about her situation. 

She hears him repeat himself, this time adding “Look, tell me where you are and I’ll come pick you up.”

Elena sighs into the phone and then remembers she should be angry at him for last night’s incident.  She bites back, “Not until you tell me how I am connected to Katherine, Stefan. I deserve to know.”

“I don’t know, Elena. I -” Not wanting to hear anymore, she ends the call mid-sentence.

Frustrated, she kicks a pebble angrily and watches it roll a small distance towards the middle of the parking area.  The afternoon sky was turning into a darker shade of blue.  Disappointment sets in as she realizes the day is about to end. She turns to head back inside the bar but is startled by Katherine standing behind her.

“Are you alright?” Katherine asks, studying her human doppelganger.  Elena is so weak, helpless, and innocent, that it is almost nauseating for the vampire who has seen too much to be around her.  Elena reminds her of herself in the past. The past her those many centuries ago before everything had changed; before she had met the mysterious brooding Niklaus and his dashing well-mannered brother, Elijah.

She had changed her fate, not to die but to survive.  While on the run, she had heard rumors of a doppelganger and a prophecy.  Curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had gone to check for herself. 

And so she had met Elena Gilbert. The young, innocent Elena Gilbert who was still very much unaware she is going to die before her life even began. Or that she is repeating history all over again by for falling for Stefan Salvatore. 

No! Katherine thinks to herself, I won’t get attached like Stefan did. The doppelganger is the ticket to her freedom. Five hundred years of running from the hybrid had made it such that she would do just about anything to hand the human over.  Elena Gilbert is nothing more but a means to an end.

 

“I’m fine.” Elena replies just as her stomach growls loudly.

Holding back a chuckle, Katherine says: “How about an early dinner? Burgers?”  She gives a tight-lipped smile and guides Elena back into the bar.

Whilst waiting for their meals to arrive, Elena asks Katherine the question that has been in her mind, on the tip of her tongue but never coming out until now.

“Why do we look exactly alike?”

Katherine smirks and absently twirls the beer on the table.

“You’re asking the wrong question.” She answers coyly.

Elena narrows her eyes and frowns.

She tries again. “Are you getting back with Stefan?”

Katherine smirks and drawls. “Now that is a better question. Refill?” She gestures at Elena’s glass.

Elena pauses and then suddenly declares to the bartender who was hovering near them.  “I’ll have what my twin has.”

When Katherine arches a delicate eyebrow at her, she grins mischievously.

“Time out for five minutes, remember? Well those five minutes is going to need a beer.”

 

Halfway through their dinner, Katherine abandon’s her half-eaten burger and instead starts stealing Elena’s fries off her plate. The time they had spent together had caused Elena to completely drop her guard around the older vampire, and she was now completely comfortable with Katherine. A sudden curious thought hits Elena and she blurts it out without thinking.

“How can you eat human food when you’re a…” Elena starts and stops and then glances around whispers: “A vampire?”

Katherine smiles, bemused, and leans in to whisper to Elena: “Well as long as I stick to a healthy diet of human blood, I can eat whatever I want.”

~

After a few hours of driving, they arrive at Mystic Falls. Katherine parks the car at the side of the road and turns to find Elena fast asleep in the passenger seat, her head leaning against the car door.

She gently shakes the human awake. With Elena disorientated and groggy, Katherine decides to take advantage of the weak human’s condition.

She presses a firm thumb to Elena’s chin and forces the doppelganger to stare confusedly into her dark eyes. “Let’s keep this friendship between us. You are not to tell anyone what happened when you were out of town or that I am back in town.”  The doppelganger’s eyes dilate with the vampire’s request and then blink a couple of times. 

 

Elena steps out of the car and is immediately consumes by renewed worry and panic.

How is she going to explain to Aunt Jenna where she was earlier? What about her car? Is it still lying at the side of the road?

All these thoughts come crashing back to her like a tidal wave.  She bends down to meet Katherine’s eyes in a silent demand for an explanation to her overwhelming feelings.

Katherine looks her nails as she says coolly: “I compelled you not to freak out when you’re with me.  There are always loopholes in everything, Elena. I’ll see you real soon.” 

Just like that, she re-starts the engine and peels out of the curb, disappearing into the night and leaving Elena Gilbert to face the consequences of her actions.


	2. The Break Up

_Dear Diary, this morning was different. I met this girl who looks exactly like me! She sort of abducted me and we took a road trip. But, she’s nothing like me. We had a great time together. I hope to see her again, because for the first time in a long time, I feel good. There’s something about her that makes her dangerous and sensual. But at the same time, every fiber in my body is telling me to stay away.  I can’t… I need to know more. Change is coming. I can sense it in the air._

_I spoke with Caroline this afternoon and she told me she has feelings for Matt. He’s moving on too. I’m glad for him; he deserves to be happy._

_There’s a sort of dark and twisted aura surrounding the Salvatore brothers. All this bad energy I’m feeling feels like some sort of a contraption – it pulls you away when you let yourself go too deep and then pushes you back when you’re too far. What you do know can hurt you, but what you don’t know could too._

_~ ~~~~_

Elena closes her diary and puts it back in its hiding spot. She yells “Bye!” when she hears Aunt Jenna and Jeremy shouting at her from the front door. Aunt Jenna is chaperoning while Jeremy is on punch duty to make up for his lousy grades so they are going to the school first.

Elena makes her way to the bathroom to do her hair and make-up _He’s doing much better ever since she had Damon compel him to forget about Vicki._

The school is hosting the traditional 1950s dance like they do every year. It was last minute and she had no time to plan her outfit, not when she recently ran over a vampire and then meet her vampire twin sister. Planning her outfit was the last thing on her list. She just had too many things to process and it still hasn’t quite sunk in.

Just when she is thinking of one seductive vampire, Katherine shows up unannounced in her bedroom, startling Elena who recovers quickly.

“Katherine! What are you doing here?”  

Katherine replies with a smile. “Checking up on my doppelganger. You know, making sure you’re still alive and not trapped upside-down somewhere.” She does a quick cursory of Elena’s room with open curiosity.

“Nice outfit by the way,” she comments on the human’s attire. “Very conservative.”

Elena blushes at the compliment. “Thanks… and Katherine, I wanted to tell-”

Katherine cocks her head to one side and tunes out Elena’s speech. She then focuses on the odd scraping sound coming from downstairs.

_That’s strange_ , she muses silently.

Elena’s brother and aunt left earlier. There shouldn’t be anyone downstairs unless one of them had forgotten something and doubled back.

She flashes off leaving Elena confused and hanging in mid-sentence.

“Katherine?” Elena shouts after her.

Katherine reaches the hallway leading to both the living room and the kitchen. She decides to check the Gilbert’s living room first. Nothing seems out of place.

Katherine sighs quietly. Was she over-thinking this; she’d spent too long constantly looking over her shoulder, afraid of that malicious manipulative hybrid.

 

“You look just like her,” an awed male voice speaks from behind. She turns around to find a hooded teen clothed in black, eyeing her up and down leeringly.

Starting to feel annoyed she thinks: ‘This must be the guy Elena ran over.’

Katherine asks, not finding the vampire familiar. “Like who?”

“Katherine, who else?” The vampire drawls.

Questions filled Katherine’s head. _He knew her? From how far back? Is he one of Klaus’s informants?_

“Katherine?” A younger voice broke her train of thought.

The unknown assailant whirls around to find the real Elena standing on the stairs, all dressed up for the dance.

She takes several steps away from the hooded vampire, recognizing him from that night’s incident.

Confusion and fear both on her face and in her face, she stutters: “Y… Y-You’re that pizza delivery guy…”

Realization dawns upon the vampire as he starts to connect the dots.

“Wait… if you’re Elena, then…” He turns back to Katherine who is watching him warily. “How did you escape from the tomb?”

She steps closer to him quietly asking, “What do you know about the tomb?”

“I was there. Don’t you remember me? I’m Noah! We met in 1864. I was going to rescue you.” Noah explains animatedly. “But that doesn’t matter anymore. You’re here, alive.” His face suddenly turns to anger as he continues: “That bitch tricked me. She told me you were stuck in the tomb along with the rest of our kind.”

The new tidbit perks the older vampire’s interest and she asks: “Who?”

Noah stunned at first replies her: “Anna. She said she found a way to get you out. We just need-” Crack. Thud. He falls on the ground unconscious, his neck in an odd angle.

“Did you… know him?” Elena watches Katherine cautiously. Her eyes had darkened considerably and Elena wonders if her older counterpart had fed recently.

Katherine shakes her head as she forces herself to stay calm for the human’s sake. _Of course, she knew him – that love-sick fool who had fallen for her charm. She had turned him in promise of being together._ But, Elena didn’t need to know that.

She turns to the ‘dead’ vampire and stares at him for a moment before deciding what she needs to do with him.

 

“God, he’s heavy.” She complains as she heaves the unconscious vampire up, groaning.

Elena trails behind her curiously.

Sensing the human’s growing curiosity, Katherine pauses to take a breath before turning around to face Elena.

“Stefan’s going to arrive soon, Elena. Don’t worry about this, princess. I’ll make sure he never bothers you again. Enjoy your night and try not to invite anymore way ward vampires in.”

She flashes out with Noah into the night, leaving Elena to carefully lock the back door.

~

During the dance, Stefan pulls her in for a dance whilst she quietly ponders what to do.

Stefan’s voice breaks her train of thought: “Hey, you okay? You’re pretty quiet tonight.”

Elena casually shrugs the concern off saying: “It’s nothing. I’m just thinking.”

Stefan licks his lips and says: “Elena, listen, about that day… when you took off, Elena. I was worried about you. I want you to know that you are nothing like Katherine. She’s-”

Elena immediately cuts him off and pushes him away saying: “I don’t want to hear it, Stefan.” She turns away from him not wanting to look at him.

Exasperated, Stefan says: “Look Elena, just hear me out alright?”

“No!” Elena spits as she spins back angrily toward him. “I thought back on what you said, on the way back in the car. You’re right on a lot of things, Stefan. You should have come clean to me months ago. You should have told me about Katherine. That I look exactly like her. But you never did. I had to find out the hard way. So let’s make this clear. I’m breaking up with you. I’m done. I’m done with trying to be your former flame’s shadow self.”

She spins around and walks away from him. She sees her two friends, Caroline and Bonnie standing near a table and heads towards them. They seem deep in angered discussion about something. As she got closer, she hears her blond friend say in an irritated voice: “What the hell is he doing here?”

Their glares change direction and targets at Elena smiling awkwardly stammers: “Uh… hi.”

Caroline snaps jealously, furious that the new hot strangers who have mysteriously arrived to town have both been attracted to plain ol’ Elena Gilbert. And then, to top it off, she discovers that the brothers are both vampires and that she and Bonnie are forced to keep their secret… or rather she has been compelled to not tell her mother aka the sheriff.

“One Salvatore brother isn’t enough for you, Elena? You just had to grab the bad brother too? Let’s go, Bonnie. This party sucks.” She stalks away with an apologetic Bonnie trailing behind.

 

Elena sighs miserably. Her night was getting bad to worse. Katherine had been wrong. She wasn’t enjoying the dance at all.

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she watches Damon talk to her best friends and then get slammed by Caroline.

After the girls walk off in a huff, she catches his eyes and makes his way towards her.

“Damon, what did you do now?” Stefan wearily says as he comes up behind Elena who groans internally.

Damon shrugs indifferently. “Nothing. Nothing at all dear brother. I’m trying to be nice and apologize for my past… indiscretions.”

He smiles widely at Elena as if noticing her for the first time.

“Would you have this dance with me please, Elena? My heart can’t take another rejection.”

She takes her time to ponder but accepts his hand. He smiles genuinely at her and spins her around.

Damon starts off by effortlessly twirling her around the dance floor.

Midway through the song, Elena coyly pleads with Damon: “Show me some dance moves from the 50s, pretty please?”

“As my fair lady commands,” he mock-bows at her and shows off a couple of moves, causing her to laugh.

As she spins on the spot, she sees the other Salvatore brother. Hands in his pockets, looking on them both, his eyes darken with hurt and jealously.

~

Somewhere in the school, a young short female with medium-length black hair that reaches her shoulders, who could easily pass for an ordinary teenager. In her hands she holds a tightly bound brown journal in her arms.

She grins happily as she skips towards the school’s back exit. In her pale slender arms holds the key to her mother’s freedom… and Katherine’s impending betrayal.


	3. All That Trouble For A Spell part I

It is one of those depressing days where he watches couples on the street hold hands, stare at each other lovingly and whisper sweet words just for each other's ears. He hears every sweet word with his super enhanced hearing and he wants to murder them all.

 _Why does life have to be so unfair? I couldn't save her a hundred and fifty years ago and now I find out she’s still alive and stuck in that damned tomb!_ Every plan he came up with had been foiled or interrupted by his selfish brother.  

 _Never trust Blondie to do your dirty work._ He scowls darkly as he ambles aimlessly around town.  He had given her Emily Bennett’s talisman for safe-keeping and she mindlessly gave it to that uptight witch whom was possessed by Emily’s ghost. 

Emily Bennett whose family he had sworn to protect had betrayed him and destroyed the only mystical ingredient that could save Katherine’s life.  It was his entire fault. Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid.  He curses internally.

Too preoccupied in his thoughts, Damon marches headlong into a petite female with black hair.  _Stupid human_.   _Did she not notice my dark dashing, brooding stature?_ ’  The impact sends her crashing to the pavement, her books tumble to the floor and scatter around the girl.  Definitely a high-school student and judging from her scrawny size, _freshman_.

He watches as she scrambles for her books amusedly, before putting on a smarmy smile and squatting down toward the unsuspecting student to pick up the last remaining book.

Her face comes into view at last.  “Anna?”  Damon’s expression went from overly cocky to downright shock.

He had assumed he and his brother were the only vampires in town, well apart from the newly turned Logan Fell.  Last he had heard from Sheriff Forbes was that someone else had staked him.   _Could it be her?_

He remembered meeting her back in 1864, when Katherine first introduced him.  She was that innocent, shy little girl who would watch them from a distance.  He’d never spoken to her in person before.

The ghostly memory sends him remembering that fated night he had been reminiscing since morning.

He glances around at his surroundings and hurriedly pulls her into a nearby back-alley.  She snatches the last book which he'd temporarily forgotten to pass it back.

"What are you doing here?"

"Doing the same exact thing you are.  I'm getting my mother out.  And this time, my plan is going to work but we need to work together." Anna shoots back. 

Damon rubs his face.  "What do you mean this time?"

Anna scowls at him.  "I've watched you screw up every single plan ever since the passing of the comet.  You've gone soft with the Gilbert girl."

She steps closer to Damon who eyes her distrustfully.  "She's not Katherine, Damon. Don't stray too far away.  Remember, your Katherine is in the tomb, and if you want her out, you'll need to get Emily's Grimoire to undo the spell.  Jonathan Gilbert’s journal didn't mention the Grimoire at all.  I’ll get the witch.  Meet me at the town square tonight.”

Anna watches him, all the while backing away, “The question is: how much do you want her back in your life?”

She flashes off, leaving the older Salvatore to process what just happened.  He walks out of the back alley and spies that same lovey-dovey couple he had been eavesdropping on earlier.   _Will rescuing her be worth all the misery I've been put through…?_

_~_

Sometime around late morning, Stefan strolls into the library which contains chock full of books.  Most of them were novels, poetry, and journals dating back all the way during the founding days of Mystic Falls. 

He watches as Damon pulls journal after journal, flipping through page after page trying to find a clue.  He decides to reveal himself, after all he had nothing to do; no girl to give his undivided attention to.

"You're not going to find the location of the Grimoire in dad's journal.  I already read it, Damon.  There's nothing useful."

Damon distractedly shoos him away without looking up, “Go play with the squirrels, brother.”

Stefan grins broadly as he stops in front of Damon whom is sitting and reading, hunched with his elbows resting on their deceased father’s desk.

He swirls his bourbon in his glass before speaking, “I'm going to help you find the Grimoire, on one condition."

Damon looks up suspiciously. "Why are you helping me now?  Too much free time on your hands since Elena dumped your sorry boring ass?"  He drawls and leans back in his chair.

Stefan puts his drink down and folds his arms unimpressed.  "The faster you get out of this town with Katherine, the better it will be for everyone."

Damon retorts sharply back.  "You mean the safer Elena will be?  Wait till she finds out who you truly are.  That the blood-starved crazy monster who rips out all those poor innocents' heads off and then tries so... so hard to fix them back together.  All this time, the real monster has been hiding behind that heroic persona you always seem to fondly portray."  He ends the sentence with a smirk.

Stefan growls angrily and grabs his older brother’s shirt to yank him out of the chair.  A moment later he finds himself sprawled onto the carpeted floor instead.

Damon picks up Stefan’s glass of bourbon and takes a sip, savoring the liquid as it burns down his throat.

He watches as Stefan blinks as he takes in his new surroundings.  “You’re weak!  You think by feeding on animal blood, you could stand a chance against me and win?  I _will_ find the Grimoire, and I will get Katherine back!”

Damon strolls slowly back to the chair where he left his jacket.  He takes his time shrugging the jacket on as he heads toward the front door, whistling.

As he walks out the door, he pops his head back in, “Oh, and if you try that one more time, I will end you.”

~

He finds Bonnie Bennett and Caroline Forbes sitting together on a bench and heads towards them.  "Bonnie!  Just the girl I'm looking for." 

"Not again."  The witch huffs angrily.

He replies charmingly, "Come on.  I'm just looking for a fresh start.  Give me what I want and I'll leave you alone.  What do you say?"  He extends his hand towards Bonnie.  "Hi, I'm Damon Salvatore and you are..."

"Not interested," Bonnie abruptly stands up and grabs Caroline's hand to leave the park, but Damon has other ideas. 

He uses his vampire speed to block the pair.

"I tried to be nice."  He warns her and then yanks Blondie from the witch's grasp.

Caroline's surprised exclamation gets ignored by the Salvatore.  "Bonnie! You're a witch-" He covers her mouth to shut her up. "I can very easily snap your neck and you will never see mommy again," Damon threatens.

He smiles when Blondie goes still in fear; her blue eyes widen and start to dart everywhere but ~~at~~ him.  "Now, where is the Grimoire?"

Time seems to pause between the witch and the vampire as they both engage in a glaring contest.  Neither budges from their positions.  Caroline decides to make a risky move and bites his hand hard.  He shouts out in anger and he removes his hand temporarily.  As he reaches out to grab his hostage again with his good hand, an exploding pain pierces through his head.  He falls to his knees and cradles his head in pain.

"Care, are you okay? We have to go. Now. I can't hold him for long."

Damon manages to utter a threat before more painful groans escape his throat.  "I'm getting the Grimoire one way or another, Bennett."

~

At the Gilberts’ house:

Elena sleepily walks into the kitchen and pulls out a bowl from the cabinet before she opens another cupboard and takes her favorite cereal out to pour into the bowl.  She opens the fridge to get the carton of milk, yawning away.

"Morning Elena," Jeremy says cheerily.

She mumbles a 'good morning' in his direction and drops heavily into the dining chair with her bowl of cereal.

Tired was an understatement.  It feels like a lazy Saturday and all Elena wants to do is laze at home, write in her journal, and probably catch up on some TV shows she had missed out on.  She figured it was just Jer and her at home.  Aunt Jenna usually went to the Grill to work on her thesis.  If Elena had to guess, it would have something to do with the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman.

After finishing her breakfast, she gets up slowly and places her empty bowl into the dishwasher before heading upstairs.

If she noticed a certain female doppelganger noisily raiding her closet, she doesn't jump in shock.  Instead she mumbles tiredly.  "What are you doing here, Katherine?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?  I'm looking for clean clothes to wear.  Don't you have anything more... revealing?"  Katherine complains as she ransacks through Elena's wardrobe.

Elena sighs before going over to where her journal lies hidden.  She glances quickly at the vampire who seems to be too engrossed to the point that she was over-working herself into a frenzied state.

She takes the journal out and curls up by the window.  She takes note after staring at a busy Katherine for a while that she was still wearing the same outfit from the day they met, but her hair had been straightened to look like hers exactly.

As she shakes her head to clear her grogginess, she mutters to herself.  "Our town is big enough to accommodate a shopping mall, you know."

Katherine hears her anyways; no matter how softly the human speaks, she could still hear her.  She ignores the comment as she finally manages to find Elena's hipster jeans.

 _Now... to find a top_ , she thinks as she starts to hum happily.

It takes the vampire a good ten minutes to find a shirt she didn't mind wearing.  She had to remind herself constantly she is pretending to be ‘plain Jane’ Elena Gilbert for a day.

She strips out of her old outfit in front of Elena, fully aware of Elena’s stares.

The sound of a hitched gasp, followed by the pen clattering to the floor tells her that she has Elena's undivided attention.  Katherine turns slowly to face Elena, grinning, as she steps into Elena’s jeans and wiggles her hips; a little more than necessary, to slip the tight hipster jeans up.  She picks up the long-sleeved shirt with a low v-neck and puts it on as sexily as she could. 

By the time she had finished dressing, Elena’s face has turned crimson and Katherine could hear her heart thumping harder.

She decides to spare her doppelganger and heads to the adjoining bathroom.  As she starts to apply her make-up, she replies to Elena’s sarcastic comment.  “I never planned on staying, so I only packed the necessities.  Besides, you and I are the same size.  We- You will accompany me to the mall some day, little Gilbert.  Your clothes are boring.  But I have an errand to run so we will have to do our girls’ outing some other time…”   _Once Damon isn't making a mess of my grand plan…_

She had been dwelling on her choices ever since the love-sick vampire-stalker divulged information.  She staked him of course and him burned.  _One less annoying love-sick fool to deal with..._

After checking her plain outfit once more and making sure there was no Katherine Pierce reflecting in the mirror, she steps out of the bathroom and saunters towards her doppelganger whose hair has strategically fallen to curtain her blushing face.

Rolling her eyes, she asks “How do I look?”

Elena doesn't look up from the journal.  Instead, to Katherine’s amusement, she gestures with her pen to the full-sized mirror.  Katherine rolls her eyes and ignores the gesture.   _Nobody tells me what to do_.

She reaches up to tuck Elena’s hair behind her ear and a pair of wide hazel eyes stare back at her blinking incredulously.  She repeats her question again and twirls on the spot.  She had nailed the Gilbert girl down to a T; from the conservative outfit to her straight listless hair and natural make-up.  No one would think otherwise.

“Are you going out?” She asks Elena who shakes her head vehemently.

 _Perfect._  She didn't even have to convince Elena Gilbert to stay out of sight.  Whilst Elena was downstairs preparing her breakfast, Katherine had snuck into her bedroom to begin the grueling process of straightening her hair.  She had even taken Elena’s mobile and switched it with one of her spares.

If there was one other thing Katherine was good at besides running, it was being prepared for everything.  The phone had beeped a message from Bonnie a few minutes earlier before Elena entered the room.  It had read: _Hey Elena, can we meet at the Grill at 1? I have the Grimoire._

She tunes back to Elena’s monologue just in time to hear her say “I just want one day off from anything vampire-related.”

Katherine shrugs happily and exits the room. “See you later, Gilbert.”

~

‘Elena’ steps into Mystic Falls Grill and immediately scans for the witch.  She spots Bonnie sitting in the booth, clutching the Grimoire and looking around warily. 

She takes her time moving to the booth all the while scanning for any signs of danger.   She spots Jenna sitting at the bar conversing animatedly with a man with rugged features.  She hears the regular strong beating of his heart and ascertains that he is human and definitely not a threat. 

The busboy with golden blond hair smiles as she passes by and greets her “Hey Elena.” 

“Hey Matt,” she must have guessed correctly because he tilts his head at Bonnie and tells her that he’d be there later to take their orders. 

She settles into the booth while comfortably exchanging greetings with Bonnie.  Matt comes a few minutes later and takes their orders.  They then settle down for small talk while waiting for their meals to be served.  She listens to the witch complain about a certain dark-haired vampire bothering her.  “He just wouldn't stop, Elena.  He keeps going at it like a dog with a bone.”

They stop talking when another busboy arrives with their steaming hot meals. 

As Bonnie digs eagerly into her lunch, ‘Elena’ turns her head and spots Stefan walking in and heading towards the bar.  As if by chance, he turns his head to her direction and she snaps her head back to focus on her lunch. 

 _Get the Grimoire and get out._  

A pleasant silence passes between them as the witch hungrily digs into her meal while ‘Elena’ pushes her spaghetti around her plate.  She takes her time twirling the spaghetti with her fork and eats leisurely.  It was not her choice of substance but it would give off the sensation of feeling full.

 Bonnie puts down her cutlery after polishing her plate and glances around the booth nervously before pushing the plate away.  ‘Elena’ furrows her eyebrows and silently mirrors her friend’s action.

After a few minutes of furrowed brows and silence, Bonnie takes out a thick black Grimoire with intricate designs.  She takes in a deep breath and then breathes out before she slides the Grimoire towards ‘Elena’. 

‘Elena’ hesitantly touches the Grimoire and pulls it towards her very carefully, to avoid touching the witch’s slender fingers.  When the Grimoire has reached the edge of her side of the table, she takes the book and puts it back into her bag sitting next to her on the booth seat. 

She does her best to suppress a triumphant smirk as she changes her tone to one of curiosity.  “Why would you pass it to me?”

Bonnie sighs in relief and replies, “He knows I have the Grimoire.  I don’t know how he knows, Elena.  Could you… keep this safe with you until he stops looking?  He almost killed Caroline today.  I’m just so afraid he will hurt someone else.  What if he finds Caroline when I’m not around?  You have Stefan.  I have my magic but Caroline… she’s defenseless.”

‘Elena’ leans in with a worried look on her face and Bonnie, sensing her friend’s concern, “I dropped Care home with her mother, she has the day off so everything should be fine.”

She carries on, hugging herself as she spoke softly, “You didn't see her, Elena.  He’s instilled this awful fear into her this morning.  I have never seen her so frightened before… not even during the time when we were kids and Tyler made up this fake ghost story about beasts prowling in the forest at the campfire on Halloween night-”

‘Elena’ suppresses her natural reaction which was to roll her eyes at the predictable outcome and finishes Bonnie’s sentence.  “Yeah and he scared her later.”  Bonnie nods and smiles wistfully, “Yeah, those were the good old days when we didn't know vampires existed and god-knows-what other monsters are out there.” 

_Oh Bonnie Bennett, you really have no idea how close you are…_

~

Sometime in the evening, Damon trudges back to the boarding house, displeased and irritated.  He slams the door hard that it reverberates throughout the house. 

Bonnie and Blondie had somehow managed to evade him all afternoon after they had left him in the park, tending to an aneurysm courtesy from the witch.  He decides to cool off first and get a drink before actually contemplating on what remaining choices he was left with. 

He moves towards the living room and then spots ‘Elena’ casually lounging in his favorite armchair reading what seemed to be a very thick book. 

He chooses to ignore her and heads for the liquor table.  He picks up a glass and pours the whiskey into it before gulping it down angrily and refilling it again. 

 “Stefan isn't here,” he states without turning around.

There was no reply from the girl; he could only hear her breathing, and the occasional crinkle of paper from behind.  He turns around, curious, because the Gilbert girl would usually have something to say. 

_What is she reading that has her so ensnared that she doesn't even bother to acknowledge my presence?_

He narrows his eyes and focuses on the faint symbols and diagrams whenever she turns a page.  They mean nothing to him at first, but the more pages she turns, the more he recognizes what it is.

He remembered seeing something back in his memories.  It finally dawns upon him what she was currently reading and he grits his teeth.

“Where did you get that?” he growls.

Elena casually turns a page and replies, “Bonnie gave it to me.  You should thank her… nicely.” 

He mutters grumpily, "I will thank that judgy little witch bitch the next time I see her."

He knew Bennett had the Grimoire.  If Jonathan Gilbert’s and his father’s journals didn't mention the dratted Grimoire, the only conclusion he could draw was that Emily had decided to keep it in her line of descendants’ grasp.

Damon holds out his hand, palms up.  "Be a good girl, Elena, and hand it over."  He turned the town upside-down searching for the Grimoire and it turns out Elena Gilbert has the book all along.

“No.”

He flashes to her suddenly morphing in an outburst.  His irises turn black and his fangs elongate.  Unfazed, she leans back against the armchair and looks nonplussed at the ‘intimidating’ sight. 

His breath smelt of whiskey and had a faint whiff of metallic odor.

She arches an eyebrow in response.  “Is that supposed to be scary?  I always thought you’d come up with something more original than the clichéd media circus fools when you've got 171 years of experience.”

She giggles.  That should have been his first clue.

Completely oblivious to the clue that just got shoved in his face; he instead attempts to yank the Grimoire out of the human’s hands.  But it proves to be surprisingly and infuriatingly useless as the Grimoire doesn't budge an inch.

The strength of her grip was more powerful and he could feel himself losing grip.  Her face morphs suddenly into vampire mode and with the surprise element to her advantage, she kicks him and sends him crashing into one of the bookshelves.  Books cascade down on Damon as he stares at her in shock, slack-jawed for the second time today.

"T-T-That's... impossible!"  He exhales from his position as he tries to comprehend. "You're supposed to be in the tomb.  I've been here for weeks trying to find a way to free you... and you've been...  What have you been doing exactly?!"

 _Plotting to get rid of your meddlesome ass,_ Katherine muses silently as she closes the Grimoire and sets it onto the armchair that she had been sitting on. 

She saunters her way to Damon, pondering on her choice of words that would tip things in her favor.  “I was never in the tomb, Damon. I escaped before Emily sealed the tomb shut. I’m sorry but I cannot allow you to hand the Grimoire over.”

Damon flashes towards her and slams her into another bookshelf.  “Give me one good reason why I should believe you?  I've been searching for so long to find a way to get you out… and now here you are, you walk back in my life and then start demanding I should-”

“I was running from someone, Damon. I didn't have a choice.” She cut in before he finished his speech.  There was something sharp poking at her spine as he forcibly pressed her against the bookshelf.  She could have easily wrenched herself free of his grip but she chose to interrupt him instead.

“You could have told me-”

Annoyance building, Katherine exclaims “He’s more powerful than you will ever be. I had to fake my own death. It was the only way to stop him from constantly searching for me. But I came back for you.”

His grip loosens slightly as his head spins to grasp the new information.  His voice wavers slightly as he staggers back.  “You came back for me?”

Katherine steps forward slowly, her expression changing to one of feeling.  She reaches to touch his face but he turns his head away, like a wounded animal.  She steps into his space and watches his expression for signs of distress and anger.  He seemed too shocked at the sight of her in Elena’s outfit.

Finding none, she reaches out again and cups his face gently, whispering “I came back for you, only for you.  He thinks I’m still inside the tomb, Damon.  You can’t give Anna the Grimoire.  If she opens the tomb, I’ll be dead.  They will come for me.”

Katherine hesitantly licks her lips and closes the distance between them.  She meets his soldering eyes brimming full of love, hate, relief, distress, and so many more.  “I have missed you so much.  We can finally be together.”  

Just when she thinks she has him, he throws her onto the mahogany desk and one of the hands swipes the books away, making room.  Lips crashed against each other in passionate heat, hands eagerly roam up and down, and bodies clash and rub in such a tantalizing sensation.  The weight and strength of the two vampires banging around on top of the table is too much for the desk that it starts to splinter at the legs.  Just as they are about to start ripping each other’s clothes off, the table gives way and they crash to the floor in a heap of wood and splinters.  He stops so suddenly that she impatiently makes a sound of irritation kindling in her throat. 

He picks her up and tosses her over his shoulder and then flashes upstairs to his bed.

Damon throws her onto the bed forcefully.  Katherine pushes herself up and impatiently rips his clothes off as he climbs on top of her.  They bite and kiss with a burning passion.  He leaves marks on her collarbone causing her to moan beautifully.  He tears her shirt open and helps her with what’s left of her clothes.

As the last scraps of the shirt came off her, she thought, _Good riddance, I hated that shirt._  

He missed this.  He missed her, the way she arched her body when he bit a sensitive area.  The way she grabs the back of his hair.  The feel of her sexy, curvaceous body pinned against him.  The way she grinded her hips against his.  Everything.

“I want you inside. Now,” she looks at him with lidded eyes and he obliges her.  He enters her in one swift move and she cries out sweetly as she easily accommodates him.

“You’re mine,” he growls as he traps her hands above her head and mercilessly pounds into her as he grunts in between.  “Say it. Say that you’re mine.”

Katherine wrenches her hands out of his strong grip and grabs his throat with one hand whilst the other scratches his bare back in response to his demand.  He hisses angrily and arches upwards causing her to moan as he hits a sweet spot. Morphing into vampire mode, he bares his fangs at her growling. 

In moments, the roles reverse; the tables turn with an unexpected movement as she tightens around him.  She rolls on top of the younger vampire all the while keeping his cock inside her.

She tightens her hold on his throat and continues to ride him at a faster pace, gyrating her hips more vigorously as she cries out in ecstasy on top of him.  He groans as he climaxes, spurting his load inside her in a mix of pain and pleasure. 

She bites hard in his shoulder to prolong the effects whilst they ride it out.  She nips his bruised lips with her bloody lips.

“I will never be yours.  Katherine Pierce belongs to no one.”

~

As they settle their sweating bodies and Damon buries his face into her silky straight hair, breathing heavily from the physical exertion.  A shrill ringing disrupts the pair in bed and he rolls away to answer.

“Did you get it?”  A demanding female voice pierces sharply into his ear.

"Deal’s off."  He hangs up promptly and tosses the phone back onto the bedside table.  He rolls back to the object of his desire and continues to kiss a very satisfied Katherine in his bed.


	4. The Getaway part 1

“Let’s get away for a while,” he suddenly suggests after hours of comfortable silence stretched between them under the silk sheets.  Her eyebrow quirks at him and she turns on her side to face him, her mussed hair splayed over the pillow.  He can feel her silently questioning him and he can’t help himself.  She came back for him and he’s being selfish for wanting to spend more time with her alone.  He doesn’t want to share her with anyone anytime soon, especially his brother.

“I’m serious,” he restates his desire to be with her and she nods but doesn’t move from her position, fully contented to stay in bed.  “Katherine, love, if we leave now, I can book us a last minute flight and we get there in a couple of hours.”  He pushes back the covers and begins to dress himself in a new outfit.

He is really serious, she could tell from the way he scrunches his forehead as he focuses on the details to a very last-minute trip.  He is dressed in minutes and turns confusedly to the sexy vampire on his bed, who is only wearing a black lacy bra and hipster jeans.  “Why haven’t you changed?”

She pouts, pointing to the useless top ripped in half to make her point. “You tore my shirt.”  He just winks at her suggestively, “You could go like that. I wouldn’t mind.”

Katherine narrows her eyes and then slowly picks herself off the bed quipping saucily, “I could go like this. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind sharing me with everyone on the way.”

He flings her one of his button-down shirts and she catches it. She tosses it back almost immediately in distaste.  “I’m not wearing that.”

He scowls at her.  _Why is she being so stubborn?  There’s nothing left in Mystic Falls to stick around for._   “What would you rather wear?” He shrugs as he gestures at his wardrobe. “Take your pick quickly so we can get outta here.”

Katherine, slightly annoyed by Damon’s attitude, sits back down on the bed for a few moments before a grin slowly grows on her lips. “I know just where to go.”

~

Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently, he leans forward and glances up at the Gilbert house’s window that Katherine had disappeared into about ten minutes ago before thumping back into the chair with another big sigh.

~

_10 minutes ago_

Katherine sneaks into her younger doppelganger’s bedroom and finds Elena deep in slumber.  She swaps their phones back and then soundlessly starts her search for a decent top. 

After about five minutes of digging through Elena’s wardrobe for close to an hour she chooses a tight fitting top. She does a quick cursory check in front of the mirror and spots a leather jacket hanging inside the wardrobe that she takes and slips on.

A slight rustling comes from where the bed is as Elena starts to rouse from her sleep. Katherine quickly flashes out of the room leaving the shirt that she had on previously there on the floor.

The moment the car door closes, Damon speeds out of the Gilbert driveway and goes at full speed towards the airport.

Without any more interruptions, Damon manages to secure two very last minute tickets, with the help of a, little persuasion to a nearby state and they board the plane. On the plane, they both fall asleep with Damon holding tightly on to Katherine while she used him as a pillow.

A few hours later, the plane touches down. The airport is almost empty and the people that are there quickly make their way out of the airport and disappear into the dead of the night. Katherine picks a few things up from the shop while Damon checks them out of the airport using a bit of ‘charm’ to speed the process up. They then bundle up into a yellow cab and stop at a random one that Katherine picks out along the way. Damon spends little time at the front desk and checks them into the fanciest room the hotel has available, after which they speed up to their rooms and pass out the moment they hit the sheets.

~

 _‘I’m sorry but the number you are calling is out of service. Please try again later,’_ the automated notification beeps again as the user snaps the phone shut and throws it on the bed. 

Her companion looks on warily from the corner of their hideout as the shorter vampire paces impatiently up and down the thin, dirty carpeted floor.  He steals a glance out the window and notices the sun starting to rise.  He hastily draws the stiff curtains together, making sure to cover the window completely. 

Unable to bear the silence anymore, he clears his throat hesitantly. Despite knowing what her mood this early in the morning was like; he would most likely get his neck snapped, but it was the least of his worries.  “What do we do now?”

The shorter vampire spins on her heel quickly, “Not we. You will stay here. I’ll head for the boarding house today. Bonnie Bennett has a thing for you right? Grab her tonight and we’ll both get what we want.”

~

She wakes up groggily and looks around as her eyes get used to the dark. She quickly averts her eyes as her eyes reach the window and the morning sunlight crept its way through the heavy curtains. Something moves beneath the sheets that are covering her and she stills and waits quietly until the movement stops before she stretches slowly and languidly like a cat across the empty portion of the bed. She casts another quick glance at the other body on the bed before easing off the bed and quietly makes her way to the bathroom.

She had been too exhausted the night before and had just passed out on the bed fully dressed, and frowned at her flat straight hair as she took in her appearance in the bathroom mirror.

_Tsk. I should do something about that._

She walks out of the bathroom and considers waking her companion rudely by drawing the curtains aside, blinding him with the morning sunrise. She brushes her fingers against the fabric as she ponders the best option.

Just as she was about to pull the curtains apart, she spies his wallet lying carelessly on the bedside table and abandons her plan immediately.  Minutes later, she is seen exiting The Park Central Hotel, holding a credit card with a sly grin forming and a wicked glint in her eyes.

~

_3:40PM, E.S.T NYC_

The darkness that had been filling his senses slowly fades as he slowly wakes up from the deep slumber that had overtaken him the moment he had hit the bed. He gropes blindly around the area beside himself but his hands only come across empty sheets. Reluctantly, he opens his eyes a crack and groans as he sees the time displayed on the display clock beside the bed.

_Where is she…?_

He lethargically picks himself off the bed to look around the room for any sign of the illusive Katherine until his eyes fall on the open wallet beside the window. He drags himself off the bed and makes his way towards the table. The sight that greets him washes away all grogginess that he had been feeling before and he rushes out of the room. Several of the credit cards that had been in the wallet were missing, mentally cursing; he rushes off in search of Katherine in hopes that his bank account was still sufficiently intact.

_Damnit, I shoulda known she’d start shopping the second she got the chance!_

~

_6:10PM, E.S.T NYC_

After effectively convincing the several of the people at the concierge, questioning multiple people on the street, searching about 8 shopping malls and pretty much searching half the city, Damon finally finds Katherine browsing lazily at a wonderful variety of racy lingerie at a V.S outlet. Her hair was back in perfect curls and she was back in her usual Katherine-style outfit topped off with a new pair of stiletto heels that were probably bought straight off the display window.

After catching his breath, Damon walks into the shop and walks up to Katherine who still has her back to the entrance. He comments sarcastically. “Nice outfit, how much did it cost?”

“Did you really think I would stay in those dratted ugly clothes and flats for the entire trip?” Katherine replies without turning around.

“Well if you’re done shopping I’d like my cards back.”

Katherine spins around and to face Damon who has his hand stuck out, patiently waiting for her to drop the credit cards into it.

A pout forms on Katherine’s “I’m not even half done with the stuff I need!”

Hand still stuck out, Damon says nothing as he continues to wait for the cards.

“Oh fine! It’s not my fault I came here completely naked.” She exclaims as she pulls the cards out of her skin tight jeans and tosses them at Damon.

Damon sticks the cards back into his wallet and sighs “You can go back to shopping tomorrow… After, I check how much damage you’ve done.”

Winking slyly, Katherine turns around again to go back to looking at the lingerie. “It was put to good use, I assure you.”

Rolling his eyes, Damon pushes the reluctant Katherine out of V.S firmly. “C’mon, I’m hungry. I know a nice, quiet place to feed.”

Still pouting, Katherine silently follows behind as he speeds off ahead of her.

Damon guides her through a thong of unassuming people and they end up in front of a row of bars and nightclubs. He slows down when the reach the area and proceeds to walk towards one of the clubs. Katherine doesn't follow him and watches with an amused look on her face as he gets farther away from her. She clears her throat loudly and he turns around to find her watching him with a smirk on very amused face, her head slightly tilted.

She waits for him to walk back to him before asking “What… are you doing…?”

Clearly annoyed, Damon replies “To get our dinner… Katherine, I’m not in the mood to play games right now. Let’s just go.”

Trying really hard not to laugh, Katherine forces herself to calm down before asking “In a club? Do you always feed in a crowd?”

His annoyance building fast due to hunger, he snaps “Would you rather snatch someone off the streets and into a back alley? I could fuck you against the wall while we’re at it so I can hear your pretty moans while we feed.”

Clearly still amused, Katherine raises an eyebrow and clicks her tongue “Oh Damon… Darling… you have so much to learn.

Crooking a finger, she beckons him with a finger and when he finally catches up with her pace, she hooks her arm into his and they blend back into the crowded streets.

Still annoyed, Damon huffs impatiently, “Where exactly are you yanking me off too…?”

Putting a finger to his lips, Katherine’s eyes continue to roam around the crowd. “Patience. Aha, found one!”

~

_6:40PM, E.S.T Somewhere in the mountains near Mystic Falls_

A young buck is grazing some grass in an open area. It suddenly lifts its head and looks around. Moments later, something collides into it. Stefan kneels over the animal that is now lying on its side and then proceeds to draw the blood from the unconscious animal.

~

_6:50PM, E.S.T NYC_

Katherine swiftly makes her way towards a double-decker tour bus that is parked at the curb. A bemused look forms on his face as he looks at Katherine, his voice dripping with skeptism. “You’re joking, right…?”

Katherine ignores the question and shoves him along, bypassing the queue. The ticket master, standing by the doors of the bus, blocks the pair and clears his throat before saying in a deep nasal, scratchy voice, “Tickets! Can’t board if ye don’t have yer tickets!”

Smiling, she looks him hard in the eyes and compels him. “You’ve already checked ours. You will continue as per normal. You will forget everything that is taking place on this bus. Understood?”

The ticket attendant’s eyes glaze over and he moves on to the next passenger yelling “Tickets! Show me yer tickets!”

Katherine pushes Damon the rest of the way up to the roof of the bus and they take a seat at the back. When the tour bus begins moving and the spokesman begins his commentary, she pushes Damon to the other side.

Damon turns back to Katherine, clearly amused as to what she was suggesting, before turning around and picking pulling a middle aged mad to his feet and plunging his fangs into him. The man retaliates at first but a look from Katherine silences him and he calms down.

The sight of Damon drinking blood from the man causes quite a few people to panic at first, but as they compel all of them to their will, the passengers, and even the spokesman and the driver join them as they take pictures on the bus, they party with the passengers whose necks are all bloodied, and they get off and repeat the same thing on about three other tour buses whilst enjoying the scenery.

On the fourth bus, the bus takes a route down the Manhattan Bridge. Katherine picks up the sound of distant shouts of partying coming from below and looks down to see a cruise, lights and music blaring and people dancing on the deck.

She grins and stands up on the seat which gets Damon’s attention while he was drinking off a young woman in a bright red mini dress. He looks up, confused, and catches her eyes as she turns to face him with a huge smile on her face.

“Jump!” Katherine falls backward off the bus, arms spread wide.


	5. The Getaway part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine reminisces about a certain cocky, arrogant vampire she sorely misses.

_Flashback to 18th Century, San Francisco_

_“Jump!”_

_Katherine turned her head slightly to blink incredulously at her dashing, brunette counterpart whose brown eyes twinkled mischievously. A crooked slight smirk appeared in the corners of his mouth as he spoke. They were standing casually on the bridge's railings, strong winds whipping their hair and ruffling their party clothes violently. Unfazed by the night’s strong winds, Katherine spied a medium-sized cruise heading towards the bridge and them._

_She zoomed into every passenger on top of the deck dancing joyfully without a care in the world so oblivious to a pair of hungry vampires looking down for some fun. She had a difficult time making out their faces as they all wore colorful, decorative masks... All saved for a pair of gentlemen. Both wore similar tuxedos, their hair slicked back immaculately, not a strand stuck out. What was worse for Katerina Petrova was that she recognized them._

_She reeled back to the smirking gentleman and shouted angrily, fear evident in her eyes. “Are you mad?”_

_He gave a noncommittal half-shrug and replied so casually as though they were just discussing the weather. “My dear, before you mock me, please do consider there is a fine line between genius and insanity. All I have done is erase the line.”_

_He bounced on this toes excitedly, ignoring the harsh glare of the seductress. “It will be fun, love. Don’t be a spoilsport.”_

_“This is stupidity we’re discussing here. I’m not jumping onto that ship,” she huffed, annoyed._

_He winked and sent a bright, charming smile to her, all teeth polished and straight. “But you love parties, darling, especially masquerades.”_

_“It’s going to be a massacre once he discovers I’ve crashed his party, and then we’re both good as dead.”_

_She snatched the mask lying on his palm and wore it anyway. There was no use arguing with an arrogant, cocky bastard. She did have an arrangement with him. Her eyes darken and narrowed. Did he plan this? Of course he did. The question was why._

_They jumped off the bridge and landed safely. She did a quick, cursory check of her dress before blending into the crowd. He followed her at a much slower pace and caught up easily. His hands snaked their way to her waist and spun her around to face him. Katherine’s dark eyes searched frantically for the pair of gentlemen who had her spooked, her body tense and alert. She flinched when he suddenly spoke, his lips nibbling her ear._

_"They’re gone, darling. I told you there is nothing to be afraid of.”_

_He smirked. She growled. They continue to dance on the top deck in their own little cat-and-mouse game. Nimble and deliberate movements in the dark; and fluttering around the shadows with artful, lingering saunters. They never reveal more than their hand, yet diverge a few breadcrumbs along the way. Whether it be a forewarn or a trap, they continue to dance gracefully along that fine, invisible line, fooling each other until the end._

 

Present time, New York City.

 

She watches Damon groove to the beat with a group of teenage girls smiling and batting their fake eyelashes. He snatches one of the girls who giggles when he whispers something to her ear and follows him deeper into the crowd. She saunters behind with a tight-lipped smile as she takes in the pulsing, mechanical electronic dance beat and drunken party-goers. Too flaky. Where was the art in hunting for your prey in a sea of intoxicated, too willing victims? Katherine glances around distastefully at the pathetic choices surrounding her.

She strolls behind the girl Damon had lured her in pretense of wanting to dance, and mercilessly exposes her throat. A sharp pair of fangs sinks into her jugular as the human stays still, silent and prone like a lifeless doll to be manipulated around and then discarded like garbage. Her expression darkens a little from the silence. Why was there no sound coming from this little lamb? Not a single sound escapes this lifeless doll’s lips. Her limp body sags and sways, propped up against two vampires as they feed from her.

Damon does not notice her darkened expression she exudes. He grins at her, his teeth stained crimson, unconcerned of the situation. “You’re pretty hungry tonight and picked a pretty nice all-you-can-eat buffet. Is Mystic Falls variety starving you?”

Katherine drops the girl immediately after she’s done feeding and walks away from him in search of a better, unwilling victim. One not too easy to catch. One that will pose a challenge. She ignores Damon, fervently hoping he’d find another to feed.

She manages to find one despite Damon’s persistent yapping behind her. A redhead with wavy curls adorning her pretty, round green-speckled eyes, sitting at the bar drinking shot after shot. The seventh shot gets interrupted by Katherine Pierce herself.

“May I?” Katherine smiles sweetly.

“Suit yourself,” the redhead shrugs. 

 

_Flashback to 18th century, on the top deck_

_Katherine just finished drinking from the wrist of their compelled waitress that they both shared. Her fangs retracted and she released the waitress who continued her merry way of collecting empty glasses along her path as if she wasn't interrupted by a charming, lazy smile and a whisper in her ear. A trickle of blood escaped her lips and dripped downwards. She hastily brought her napkin to wipe the evidence away but his fingers brushed them aside._

_“I want a taste.” Just like that, he leaned up close to her, stepping into her personal space. His lips brushed against hers, crimson stained tongue darted out to lick the offending liquid clean from her corners of her mouth before running along her lips, seeking for entry._

_She denied him entry. As he pouted, a ghost of a smile appeared just as quickly as it disappeared behind a hidden glare. “You drank from her too,” she accused to which he smartly replies, “She tastes so much better from you.”_

Present time, in a random executive cabin suite which Damon killed the couple on the spot because he claimed he liked the view.

 

Two vampires and one compelled redhead step into the suite after Damon places a “Do Not Disturb” placard on the door handle before locking their very unwilling lamb in with them. He rubs his palms excitedly, “Where were we?”

He eyes the redhead lewdly - Michelle, Gabby, or was it Trisha? - undressing her with his dark, amber eyes. “You think she wears lace?” Damon wonders aloud, distracted by the display Katherine puts on.

She places quick kisses along the redhead’s freckled petite frame until their little prey is naked and responding to her smothering touch. Katherine then backs slightly towards the headboard in just her black racy lingerie, amber eyes locked onto Damon’s. He had decided to hang in the back and watch the vixen seduce Freckles.

“Well, are you coming? I’m not doing all the work myself,” Katherine beckons with a slight tilt.

“You’re doing just fine, kitten,” Damon folds his arms and sits on the love-seat, popping a biscuit into his mouth and rummaging through the dead couple’s belongings.

She narrows her eyes and then quips saucily, “Fine. Get your own. This one is all mine.”

“Really Pierce? Not even a taste? I’ll be good.”  

He wheedles her, finally getting off the couch and climbs onto the end of the bed. An naive Freckles laid in the center, obstructing his path from a very annoyed Katherine Pierce. He supposed that is a good idea, having Freckles conveniently placed in the center.

There was something off with Katherine the moment they landed on the cruise. Damon, for all his faults and incessant sarcastic remarks, had noticed she was behaving strangely. One minute, they were having a great time on the tour bus, the next she was acting moody and sour on the cruise, and it was her idea in the first place! He tried to grind his hips against hers to the pulsing beat to no avail. She wasn't there with him anymore. So he did his best to ground her to the present with his endless rambling but it only served to irate her further. It was a small miracle she hasn't snapped his neck yet.

He places his arms in a placating gesture, “Where do you want me?”

 

_Flashback to 18th century._

 

_The pair managed to sneak into the master suite with a couple of close calls along the way. Her partner-in-crime had claimed the king-sized bed and was comfortably lounging in the middle, watching her as she takes in the objects in the room. She spied a beautiful painting, no doubt drawn by the ruthless devil himself. She picked up a small globe and gazed at it with open curiosity._

_“Join me,” he drawled, catching her attention from the globe. She slinks towards him with such feline grace that could put all women to shame._

_“What do you think this is?” In her palm rests a clear globe devoid of any markings but one could tell it was very ancient._

_“Don’t care. Don’t wish to know. I want you. Now.”_

_He pounced on her and the globe slipped from her palm, forgotten and discarded. It rolled off the mattress with a soft thud and continued rolling from the duo and their frenzied movements of passionate lovemaking. He bites her shoulder with dull human teeth to which she retaliated with sharp nails marring his pristine back. He groans whilst she grins and snarks, “Not so tough now.”_

_He responded by flipping her onto her stomach, her face getting shoved into a stuffy pillow. “Oh darling, this is only the beginning.”_

_She moaned his name, her back arching as he teased her sex with his skillful tongue. He entered her in one swift move, after deciding she was wet enough to accommodate his member. She screamed into the pillow as he pounded her from behind. He was merciless with her; he slowed down when she was nearly close, he sped up without giving her rest. She never knew the rhythm because he mixed it up until he had her pleading for mercy, her tears staining the sheets. He was getting close too... and so was she. She whined pitifully when he pulled out of her, leaving just the tip in. He wanted her to beg. He wanted..._

_The door of the master suite opened suddenly and a head poked inside, scaring them both. He slammed into her and pressed his entire weight on her. She would have screamed from the sudden pressure but she recognized that lilting, composed English accent. She was going to die. Right now. In this humiliating state._

_She froze, too petrified to move, her mouth formed a tiny ‘oh’ and came rocking underneath him. She felt him raise himself partially off her as he spoke with the man. She buried her face into the pillow and hoped the interrupter would not pay her any heed. That she was one of the many party-goers compelled to attend. Her ears strained to pick up their soft conversation._

_“I see you’re enjoying yourself, little brother. We were wondering where you snuck off to. You weren't on board when we set sail.”_

_“I decided I was allowed to be fashionably late to my party. Did you want something?”_

_“No, I just wanted to check up on you. We’ll leave you to enjoy the remainder of your birthday party. Your brother prefers to do his hunting... on a more stable ground, so to speak.”_

_The door closed softly. A chuckle escaped from his lips as he pulled out completely. His member drained and limp from the action. Anger surged from Katherine and she shoved him off her. He landed ungracefully onto the carpeted floor, guffawing away at her expense._

_“Why couldn't you just told me it was your party from the start?” She huffed a few minutes after processing the conversation._

_He propped himself up with his elbow and smirked. “What fun would that be?”_

_“I’m not getting you anything.”_

_He climbed back onto the bed, well informed she was still irritated that he got the best off her for tonight. He will enjoy his time spent with the lovely Katerina Petrova. For who knows what tomorrow might bring. He kissed her fully on her lips and she welcomed him back, with a roll of her eyes._

_“You are my birthday present, love.”_


	6. All That Trouble For A Spell II

As the sun rises, a red 1963 Porsche slows to a stop and parks at the driveway. The door opens and a slim black duffel is lifted from the passenger seat. The driver steps into the house and makes his way leisurely to the living room. He pauses in mid-step, jaw half-open at the sight. The place was a disaster zone. In one corner lay remnants of uneven wood chunks that used to be their deceased father’s work desk. The carpeted floor had various books scattered all over. Even some of the bookshelves had taken one hell of a beating and the shelves had collapsed. All in all, it looked like a tornado in the shape of a raging vampire had wrecked the place. There was no doubt that the culprit had most likely failed to acquire the Grimoire and had instead chosen to take their anger out on the furniture. Stefan shakes his head tiredly and begins to stack the fallen books together. He mentally categorizes the list of things he had to do - mend the shelves for the books, buy some new bookshelves, and refill the wood for the fireplace. He pours himself a drink before starting the tedious tasks. It was between his second and third drink that he begins to hear familiar grunting sounds and a decisive female moan from above. Stefan snorts to himself. Oh this is so typical of him. _Rage binge, killing spree or wreck the place, drink bourbon, pick a girl up and fuck them senseless. Repeat._

 

From the other side of Mystic Falls, Anna sits sullenly on one of the many empty green benches at the Town square as she reconsiders her strategy of using the lovesick Salvatore to get what she wanted. She just needed him to do one simple thing and he totally blew her off. The Salvatore was to get the Grimoire whilst she’d had Ben pick up the Bennett witch; who had obviously been crushing on him. But the incompetent fool had failed. Granted, he was a newbie at the vampire lifestyle. She was surprised that she had yet to kill him. Anna recalled the night he and the girl had a date at the Grill. It was supposed to be easy. All he had to do was lure her to the motel room but she tripped on her own feet and grabbed his arm. Doing that allowed the witch to know instantly that her crush was now a vampire and she gave him an aneurysm before running out. No witch. No Grimoire. No spell. A closed tomb. She just needed...

  
“Anna? Anna. Anyone home?” She looks up and pastes a bright smile to the confused high school kid she’d met in the library. “Hey, Jeremy right? Jeremy Gilbert, what are you doing up so early?” She asks whilst glancing around surreptitiously. It was too early on a Saturday for Mystic Fall residents to be milling about. There are a couple of joggers and dog-walkers but they paid no heed.

  
The Gilbert boy moves around the bench to stand in front of her, “Jogging. I always take this route every morning. Are you okay?”

  
Anna stands up and flashes a dangerous grin, her fangs elongating as she speaks, “I will be.” She morphs, irises turning black, and with a blur she knocks him unconscious simultaneously speeding him back to the motel room. She props the kid against the bed as she rummages through the kid’s pockets, ignoring the useless minion in the corner. Within minutes, she has him bound and gagged before rummaging into his possessions for his phone. It was overkill but she needed to send the proper message. She snaps a picture of him and attaches it with a message to Elena Gilbert with a threat: _You have until sundown to break the seal on the tomb or else I will kill your brother._

 

  
Her mobile vibrates softly with a chime as a message comes in. Elena Gilbert sits perched on one of the kitchen high stools with a bowl of cheerios, leaning against the kitchen island counter sleepily. She swipes her thumb across the screen, wondering who it was. Her brown eyes widen as they darted back and forth at the threatening message.

“Shit!” She exclaims loudly, forgetting that she is not alone and Aunt Jenna who had been sitting opposite her, peers at her niece curiously.

  
“What is it?” Aunt Jenna asks, going back to the crossword puzzle in the newspaper section. She had a slight idea that one of Elena’s friends had messaged her to inform the latest high school gossip. Caroline would be the obvious recipient. Likely scenarios could include someone getting dumped, or a girl gets pregnant from the football jock, or some kid gets caught dealing drugs and it better not be....

  
“Jeremy!” She hears Elena utter her brother’s name as she makes a mad dash out of the kitchen, abandoning her bowl of soggy cereal. The main door nearly shuts before she runs back in to grab her car keys and rushes out again. She hears the door slam shut and her car backing out of the driveway. She rolls her eyes and pulls the half-eaten bowl of cereal towards her.

  
“Teen drama.”

  
  
Ten minutes later, a frantic Elena reaches her best friend, Bonnie Bennett’s house and raps the door knocker whilst yelling for Bonnie at the same time. The door opens and there she is, smiling tiredly at Elena. She sighs, “Elena, it’s only nine-thirty in the morning. Where’s the fire?”

  
“Jeremy has been kidnapped. I don’t know who took him.”

  
Elena steps into the house and shows her the message, before depositing herself onto the sofa cradling her head in her hands. Bonnie reads and re-reads the text message several times. Making her decision, she reaches out to comfort Elena, rubbing her back as she says, “I will talk to Grams, okay Elena? But we need the Grimoire. I passed it to you for safe-keeping.”

  
Elena scrunches up her face, feeling confused more than ever. _What is a Grimoire?_

  
“You did? When?!”

  
“Last weekend. We met at the Grill, do you remember?” Bonnie reaches over to grasp her distressed friend’s hands to ground her. “Hey, he’s going to be okay. Just get the Grimoire and meet us at the tomb tonight. We can only start the spell when the moon is full.”  
Still confused, Elena gets back into the SUV and starts up the car. She grips the steering wheel tightly and then freezes as the words sink in. Bonnie had said that she had passed it to her last weekend. There was just one problem. She stayed home all weekend, too tired and lethargic to leave the house.

  
_Katherine…_

  
She floors the accelerator and speeds out of the driveway, praying that Kathrine had not left town yet. Having no means of communication to contact Katherine, Elena resolves to head towards the direction of the Salvatore boarding house and fervently hopes she is with Stefan.  _Please be there… god how could I be so stupid!_ Elena bites her lip and berates herself internally because she hadn’t bothered to ask her even though Katherine had visited her twice.

Parking her car behind a red Porsche she could only assumed it was Stefan’s, she knocks frantically against the door and hears someone from inside holler, “Door’s open!” Elena lets herself in to find Stefan in the living room...cleaning.

  
The cliche phrase ‘it looks like a tornado hit’ comes to the forefront of Elena’s thoughts. Everything was in shambles. The couches were upside-down, bookshelves broken and smashed. There used to be a desk...in the corner too. Surprisingly, the bottles of liquor on the far end of the room seems untouched. The fireplace looks intact. She notices a stack of books near Stefan and guesses he has been doing this for a while. She clears her throat loudly. “Is the Grimoire with you?”

  
He turns away from the bookshelves and towards her with a tiny frown. “Elena, what’s going on?” _Why does she need the Grimoire?_

  
“It’s Jeremy. He’s been kidnapped.” Elena whirls around the hallway and then starts to shout for Katherine but nothing comes out of her lips. She tries and tries again but no words escape her. Why couldn’t she say Katherine’s name? She was able to speak to her during all those times the vampire had showed up to her house. Her desperation of being unable to pronounce her name must have shown on Elena’s expression as she stares up the ceiling, unable to comprehend. She hears Stefan talking but it feels as though there’s cotton jammed into her ears. She goes into daze as her mind goes out of control trying to figure out what was going on until she finds herself guided to the couch that is upright.

  
“Elena, are you okay? Elena?”

 

She jumps to her feet immediately and looks down at a very confused Stefan. She asks bluntly, “Is Damon here?”

  
She sees him frowning at the mention of his brother, forehead wrinkling in a disgruntled expression. He replies her slowly, “We don’t need to involve him, Elena. Just tell me what happen- Elena!”

  
He rushes behind her as she heads towards the stairs and gently grabs a hold of the back of her elbow. He tries to plead with her. “Elena, please just tell me, what is going on. I will do whatever you ask of me. But Damon... I don’t think it’s the best time to-”

  
Elena pulls her elbow stubbornly out of his grip and he lets her go, watching her jog up the stairs and burst into Damon’s bedroom. He hears Damon groan at the interruption and he sighs softly as he wearily makes his way up.

  
“Didn’t your parents teach you to knock before they drowned?” Damon snarks.

  
Elena ignores the low blow. She feels too anxious and scared of the prospect of losing her brother that the Grimoire is her only saving grace. She feels warmth behind her and knows Stefan is right behind her, leaning against the doorway.  
“Where is the Grimoire, Damon? I know you have it.” She demands the older Salvatore who is sitting up on his king-sized bed, shirtless and watching her amused. From this position behind Elena, Stefan could see everything. Nothing has changed much, so he decides to take a back-seat approach and watch the exchange between his ex-girlfriend and his brother. He narrows his eyes when he spots another body under the duvet still suddenly.  _This isn’t going anywhere. Why does Elena think Damon has the Grimoire?_

What did he miss whilst he was out of Mystic Falls, in the mountains chasing a pack of buffaloes?

Stefan snaps his fingers, drawing the attention to himself before pointing at a lump next to Damon. “Damon, get your booty call out. This isn’t the place to discuss such matters.”

  
Damon retorts, “This is my room in case none of you trespassers notice...” He is interrupted rudely again, this time by Katherine’s head popping out from beneath the covers to stare incredulously at him.

  
“Did he just call me a booty call? Really, Damon! How many girls have you shared your bed with?”

  
He snaps his head towards her when she punches his shoulder. “Zero! What the hell does it matter? Don’t tell me you’re jealous?!”

  
Her sudden appearance shocks the younger Salvatore to the core as he grips the door frame shatters under his grip. Stefan stares incredulously at his older brother, “H-H-H- How...did you get her out...without...opening the tomb?”

  
Damon smirks at the knowledge of knowing something that his brother didn’t as he gloatingly responds to his older brother. “She was never in the tomb. Keep up little brother.”

  
Deciding it was enough teasing and knowing full well what the human wanted, she slinks out of bed and saunters up to Elena to introduce herself properly. It was just for show, of course. The brothers had no idea she had met Elena Gilbert before. She drops her tone huskily as she eyes her doppelganger who has tensed up during the heated exchange with Damon.

  
“You must be Elena. I’m Katherine... But you already knew that.”

  
Katherine walks right into the human’s personal space and notices that her doppelgangers’ shoulders drop imperceptibly and her tensed expression fell. Good. The compulsion still works. She gently fingers Elena’s bare collarbone, eliciting a shudder from her. A low growl to her left signals that Stefan has regained his sense of composure. “Stay away from Elena!” He demands.

  
Not wanting to have another repeat performance of being unable to talk to Katherine, she turns to Damon instead and pleads, “Please, I know you have the Grimoire. A vampire took Jeremy! Bonnie has agreed to do the spell tonight. Please Damon, he’s my brother!”

  
“Nope! No can do... Now, if you had barged in at a much later time... I could be in a better mood to negotiate,” Damon points unashamed at the decent pointed tent poking out from the covers in between his legs. At his words, Elena looks down despite her internal voice telling her not to. She blushes bright red immediately and looks everywhere but at him. She turns to Stefan for help but he seemed too busy trying to process his former lover being alive to be useful.

On the other side of the room, Katherine lounges near the bathroom with a smirk in place. There were two choices that could change everything. This is her time to set the moves, now that the pieces were in play. But which one will benefit her more? She could refuse to hand over the Grimoire and loan it to a witch she knows. But she would lose Elena’s trust in her and all the little things she had done to build the relationship with the human would be for naught. Anna would kill her brother and Elena would hate her.  
Alternatively, she could let the witch undo the spell and send every vengeful vampire hot on her heels. But it would solidify the hold she had over Elena who would be very grateful to her for saving her brother’s life. In addition, judging from the way the ex-couple stood apart from each other made it obvious that the two had already broken up, yet Stefan continued to protect her.

  
_Interesting…_

  
Whatever those odds of them ever getting back together again, there was a high possibility of things turning in her favor. Plus, she could use Damon’s credit card and go on another shopping spree. All that running is going to wear her new heels down.  
A small smile appears on her lips momentarily, I’ll have to get myself another pair. Her mind made up, Katherine pulls out the Grimoire that was currently lying, nestled under one of Damon’s many throw-pillows. Raising a brow, Damon snarks sarcastically, “Of all the terrific hiding places we have in this house, you had to hide it there?!”

  
She rolls her eyes and bites back. “You didn’t exactly give me a chance to hide it when you threw me over your shoulder! Where else would it be safest to put it where we could both have eyes on it?”

  
Katherine hands the thick book over to a very relieved Elena whilst Stefan looks on unblinkingly.

 

It sounds too easy. She has nothing to gain from handing the only one thing protecting her. There has to be a hidden agenda. These thoughts roll around in Stefan’s mind all the while as he watches the scene unfold before him.

  
She hears him clear his throat and ignores him for now, concentrating on Elena who is thanking her with such genuine sincerity that it amuses her how predictable her doppelganger could be. She sends Elena off, who eagerly flies down the stairs and out of the house in record time.  
Katherine saunters back to the bed and takes her place next to Damon, and aims a coy smile to the other brother. “Do you really think that lowly of me, Stefan?”

  
He replies tensely, “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  
Katherine sighs tiredly and curls into Damon’s side, closing her eyes. “Whatever. You got what you came for.”

  
Damon pips up, smirking. “Run along, little brother. Go do your hero...thing and leave us be. We’ve got a lot of beauty sleep catching to do.”

  
Damon waits till Stefan leaves, casting another wary glance at Katherine before making his way out. He could hear him return back to living room probably to clean up their mess. He waits a couple minutes more for Katherine to open her eyes and grin devilishly.  
Moments pass but no response comes from the feisty vixen.

  
“Hey, you know I’m kidding about sleeping, right?”

  
“Katherine?”

  
He pokes her arm and tries once more. “Kitty Kat?”

  
No reaction. She’s dead to the world and his erection stands tall and proud.

  
“Fuck!”


	7. Springing The Past

Three hours later, Katherine wakes up to an annoyed Damon glaring at her. She arches a delicate brow at him to which he replies with a slight irritation, “You fell asleep and I had a raging boner.” She smirks and her hand glides down to his boxers to caress his package. At her touch, Damon growls. “I just got rid of it.”

 

Katherine drawls lazily and her hand withdraws. She stifles a laugh at his whimper. “What a pity. I was hoping to play.”

 

He cracks a grin, using his signature smile which she knows means trouble. “We can... Just not here.”

 

**-A-**

Mystic Falls Grill 5P.M.

 

A shrill, indignant cry coupled with a couple of catcalls and whistles breaks Katherine’s concentration and she pauses her passionate making out with Damon, not moving from his lap. An amused smile forms on her lips, Caroline Forbes; she assumes, stomps over rather cutely to their booth, hands on her hips.

 

“Elena! What... What are you doing with him? And what happened to your hair?! Actually, come to think of it, I love your top. I don’t think I’ve… ever… seen you wear it before!”

 

She stops to catch her breath and then remembers her initial objective. Before she could re-start her tirade, Damon interrupts her with a lazy smirk. “Hello to you too, Caroline.”

 

Rolling her eyes, she ignores him completely and yanks ‘Elena’ out of his lap and the booth.

 

Katherine lets her, playing the role of Elena easily as she stumbles out as clumsily she allows herself, she plasters on her most innocent and confused expression.

 

“Caroline,” she sighs. The blonde isn’t deterred. It makes her more determined than ever.

 

“Don’t Caroline me, Elena! You’re supposed to be with Stefan. The younger Salvatore with gorgeous hair. Oh my god! Did he....compel you?” Blondie drops her voice to a whisper. ‘Elena’ notices Matt and Tyler coming closer out of the corner of her eye.

 

“Care... You’re over-thinking this. I’m fine. He hasn’t done anything to me. He has been a perfect gentleman.” At this, Damon smiles smugly at her statement.

 

Caroline folds her arms stubbornly. “I doubt it. You, of all people, should know what he-”

 

Bright-blue eyed Matt Donovan comes along and steers a high-strung Caroline away from the booth whilst saying hi to ‘Elena.’ Katherine watches him give a wary side glance at her partner in crime.

 

Tyler grins, baring all teeth. “That was hot! Didn’t think you had it in you.”

 

“Tyler!” He walks away, responding to the call of an angry Caroline, leaving Katherine to slink back into the booth and rests her head on Damon’s shoulder.

 

Without much effort, she hears the Lockwood kid mutter, “You need to chill, Forbes. That is nothing. Well, it’s something. You know what, Care? Forget what I said, okay. Let’s just play.”

 

Katherine sighs happily. Playing innocent Elena Gilbert was far too easy, her friends don’t even suspect a thing. A small frown forms on her lips.

 

_Except her._ The frown disappears almost instantly as her thoughts move back to what the Blonde had said before she’d gotten pulled away by the two jocks. _Didn’t Elena tell anyone she broke up with Stefan? Because Blondie seems to think she is still dating him, the younger responsible brother._ Oops! Katherine smiles to herself. _It might even do her a favor. She’ll have me to thank._

 

-A-

 

A man watches them from afar, swirling his glass of scotch periodically. He knows the brunette as his student and Jenna’s niece. He had begun observing Elena Gilbert the moment she walked in with his wife’s murderer. They’d slid into a booth where she had slid onto her lap, and they had proceeded to make out passionately. He tightens the grip on the glass. This wasn’t like her at all. She must have been compelled or something; it was the only rational explanation he could think of. He signals the bartender for another and continues to watch.

 

Her friends swing by and Caroline Forbes, the blonde, starts yelling at Elena. He and probably half the occupants in the establishment could hear the conversation. It seemed like he wasn’t the only one that thought something is wrong with Elena. He waits till her friends walk past the booth and towards the pool table. Patiently, he bids his time.

 

_Does Elena know he is not who he says he is? Does she know he is a vampire?_ These thoughts roll around his head as he continues to swirl the whiskey in his glass.

 

Ten minutes pass and the couple moves towards her group of friends. They take the next vacant billiard table and start conversing with the group. He can’t hear the conversation this time. The bar is too far to hear past the endless chatter around him. They seem to be getting along, albeit a slightly begrudged Caroline. After a few minutes, what seems like a spat breaks out between the blonde and the vampire.

 

He gets up and stops mid-way across the grill when Caroline leaves the Grill in a huff. Matt Donovan runs after her. He nods at a passing Tyler Lockwood who murmurs a greeting to him. They are alone again, laughing, playing and more lip locking. He continues his stride and then stops in front of the pair. He smiles charmingly at them.

 

“Hello Elena. Mind if I join you two for a game?”

 

She looks up from her position, her cue stick inches away from the cue ball. Her expression changes to one of confusion before she recovers quickly and smiles at him, “Sure...”

 

The reaction was all he needed to know that she had been compelled. She had failed to recognize him. This was not Elena Gilbert.

 

-A-

 

Katherine focuses on the cue ball and breaks the rack with controlled ease, watching the billiard balls ricochet and scatter whilst she observes the two men size each other up. She hears the newcomer introduce himself as Alaric Saltzman, the new history teacher in Mystic Falls H.S. Damon returns the gesture.

 

“Oh... As in Stefan?” Damon nods and then smashes the cue ball at a striped ball, easily landing a shot in. “He’s my younger brother.”

 

Alaric leans in, watching the game and patiently waits for his turn. “I never seem to see any of your family, other than your brother of course.”

 

Damon walks around her and towards the human, watchful and wary at the sudden interest in his background. “Oh... It’s just the two of us now.” She watches from a corner and eyes Alaric, who for some reason, seems to be on a mission to play twenty questions with Damon Salvatore.

 

“You’ve been here your whole life?” The questions come again, this time questioning his background heritage.

 

She sees Damon shrug noncommittally. “On and off. Travel a bit.”

 

The persistent human must have really had a death wish because his next question was, “Really. Where? Around the states?”

 

Damon finally abandons the game for a bit to stare at him. The human laughs nervously and backs away a bit, raising his hands. “Nosy, I know. You can be the dark, mysterious guy that hangs around the school buildings. Chicks dig that, these days.”

 

The game continues on with Katherine pretending to be her doppelganger and doing her best to ignore those two scrutinize each other. Somewhere during the game, the remaining balls still untouched are five striped, four colored, and a solid black in the center. Just as Katherine considers silence to be slightly unnerving with all the stares thrown into the mix, and it just so happens to be her turn.

 

Calculating the best position, she saunters confidently towards Alaric, pausing to give a sidelong glance at him and then back to the billiard table. The black ball stands obstructed in her line of sight from the stripes. She would have to curve the cue ball slightly. Her analysis concludes, and she side-steps right into the human’s space. Slightly surprised, he shuffles away. She gauges the right amount of force needed to send the cue ball to ricochet off the side and smack the striped purple no.15 into the striped red no. 12 and sink them both in. That would give her and Damon a lead advantage.

 

She bends gracefully - not in a clumsy way her doppelganger seems to possess - and begins to aim, stalling in that pose until she hears an uncomfortable, almost silent swallow from Damon’s blatant staring.

 

From his position, he could see her full cleavage and that little peek-a-boo with her black lace bra that he’d had the pleasure of removing from her body earlier in the day. His eyes narrow at her suggestive intent but his unusually active Adam’s apple betrays his current state.

 

He sees her smirking at the involuntary reaction. _Oh you sly vixen, teasing me in front of this busy-body nobody. You just wait after this game is over. I’ll give you a real tease where I have you begging for mercy._

 

Katherine pulls back the cue stick from the white ball and right before she could send the cue ball to their victorious streak, the human pips a question out so suddenly it rips into the silence viciously.

 

“Mystic Falls is a rather special town, don’t you think? Please be aware we have a strict curfew after eleven as another recurring animal attack has occurred continuously in the past few weeks. For your safety, we are doing everything we can to ensure the welfare of our citizens and we need your cooperation to stay indoors,” Alaric reads solemnly from the newspaper.

 

He gestures to the article and comments, “Looks to me that these tiny puncture marks, so symmetrically placed, on the victims’ necks can only mean vampires exist. You know, Elena, Jeremy did his extra credit research on local news and he chose vampires as his topic. Ironic isn’t it?”

 

Her shot shoots off as planned but the ball veers off slightly to the right, only grazing the striped purple ball. The abrupt question startles her so much that she chuckles nervously at Alaric’s statement.

 

“But that’s absurd. Vampires don’t exist.” Katherine straightens up, shooting Damon an undecipherable look. “Everyone knows that,” she finishes her sentence, eyeing him suspiciously. _How much does he know? He’s a nobody - an outsider. Only the Founding members know of these “animal attacks.”_

 

Alaric moves opposite of her and easily sinks two colored balls in a row. He looks at her and grins, “So you’re saying... Your ancestor, Johnathan Gilbert, was a nutter when he wrote those fascinating stories in his journal.”

 

Katherine opens her mouth to interject but Alaric doesn’t allow her to continue. He does, however, keeps a wary eye trained on the older Salvatore who has moved to stand as a buffer between him and ‘Elena.’

 

“Because I had the pleasure of reading the journal your brother used as one of his main sources and these stories somehow co-exists with my beautiful wife’s intensive research on supernatural creatures - vampires.”

 

Damon moves to sink the striped balls Katherine had completely missed, leaving them trailing behind the high school teacher. “Really?! I’d love to meet her. Is she here?” He questions the human to find Alaric’s glare at him intensify and then the tone changes abruptly, taking a more serious accusing note. “She went missing.”

 

Damon drawls his mock condolences, “That’s such a shame. She would have been fun.” He ignores Katherine’s dark look as she moves behind the human to the other side of the table.

 

There seemed to be something going on between the two and the human seemed to hold all the answers and questions. In an attempt to clear the air, she asks if his wife had been able to find his missing wife. Alaric’s eyes bore holes into Damon as he replies, “No, all they found was a large pool of her blood. There was no sign of struggle nor was there a murder weapon. The trail led to a dead end so it’s been a cold case ever since.”

 

He pulls a tattered photo out, all the corners were crinkled and yet the picture was devoid of any wrinkles. Katherine turns her gaze from the duo to have a glance at the picture and freezes. The picture captured the coy smile of a woman with silky black, straight long locks and a fringe depicting a playful, seductive Isobel Fleming. His missing wife was the very same vampire who found her in Chicago and was currently helping her to gain her freedom from the clutches of a paranoid Original.

 

Suddenly remembering that she was pretending to be Elena, Katherine slaps a hand over her mouth to cover the tiny gasp that escapes her lips and she looks up at the two men. Her eyes narrow as Damon’s facial expression gets darker. _He knows Isobel...and if he does, that means he must have been the one who turned her. How did Alaric guess? He’s only been here for a couple of months._

 

-A-

 

_Gotcha!_ Alaric smirks internally the moment he finds the vampire faltering in his tracks as he slaps the picture down on the billiard table, the game forgotten entirely. He hears Elena gasp and her eyes dart between him and Damon. He furrows his brows at her, and makes to ask what was wrong but she gestures sheepishly about needing to use the restroom and leaves.

 

He decides to put her out of his mind for now and turns to grin at Damon. “Shall we continue?”

 

“Hey man. You win this round. I’m actually going to get a drink,” the dark-haired vampire replies and walks around and away from him. From this side of the Grill, he has an excellent vantage point where he could see the restrooms and the bar perfectly without any obstruction. He restarts the game to play by himself whilst surreptitiously watching everyone.

 

He spies Elena exiting the restroom and come to a stop in front of a colorful poster. He watches as she pulls the poster off the board and grins impishly as she strides towards the vampire, waving the poster around, gesturing wildly.

 

Damon knocks his drink back and slings his arm around her waist. Narrowed eyes follow the duo’s exit from the Grill and he follows them from a relatively, safe distance. There seemed to be a public movie screening event as colorful picnic mats were strewn distractedly around. He sees some of his students milling around; Matt and Caroline are seated closely on a red checkered picnic mat.

 

He comes to an abrupt stop when the duo split to different directions. ‘Elena’ re-joins her friends while Damon heads into one of the darker alleys. Watching from where he was, he felt compelled to follow. To finish what he had started - avenge his wife.

 

-A-

 

Damon pretends to spew random nonsense into his phone while listening to a set of footsteps and the quick beating of a human heart. He scoffs internally at the human’s attempts of stealth. He exclaims loudly, not bothering to face Alaric, “Are you really this stupid?”

 

He snaps his phone cover shut and shoves it into his pants pocket, eyeing the sharp pointy end of the stake. Beckoning the fool with his hands, he spreads his arms wide open and shuts his eyes. “Let’s get this over with.” The human just stands there, in a half-crouched stance. He cracks one eye open. “I’m offering you a free pass. Stake me... No, let’s put it this way; Attempt to stake me whereby I kill you and then resume my hot date of which I’m clearly missing out on.”

 

He feels sluggish movement coming towards him and waits impatiently for the strike to land. The moment the pointed tip makes contact, he grabs the homemade weapon with his eyes closed and shoves the teacher into the brick wall who scrambles back up, defenseless.

 

“Where’s Isobel? What have you done to my wife?” The questions gush out from his tightly tense jaw, as if they had been waiting for a very, very long time for the right person to answer them.

 

Damon plays with the stake and replies casually, “What do you want me to say? That I killed her. Does it make you happy?” It earns a desperate nod so he keeps talking, “Yeah I did and I wasn’t lying. My, was she delicious.” He drawls the last word out, smacking his lips together for emphasize. It garnered the perfect reaction from Alaric who charges at Damon like a mad man yelling obscenities. Rolling his eyes, he grabs the collar of the shirt, slams him into another brick wall, and then stabs him in the heart with his own stake. He pulls out the stake, admiring the blood seeping out of the open wound and seep into the dead body’s clothes. Smirking, he remarks dryly, “That is one pointy stake.”

He dumps the corpse and the stake into a nearby green dumpster and exits the alley, whistling a merry tune.

 

 


	8. Startling Revelations

On the far side of Mystic Falls, Elena carries the thick Grimoire with Stefan trudging along behind her. He’d refused to allow her to go alone into the forest and she was grateful. She hears a distant shouting and the sound of loud music blasting from a boom box leading her to come to the conclusion that there was a party nearby. They meet the Bennett witches who had already started on the spell’s preparation at the base of the tomb entrance. Grams intones, “Air. Earth. Fire,” and ignites the three torches surrounding her and Bonnie. Bonnie chimes in, “And water.” Grams nods and sprinkles water from a bottle over the base.

 

Grams turns to the duo and says solemnly. “We’re ready.”

 

“Good. Start chanting, Bennett.” A new voice wafts into the clearing. It was higher-pitched and the owner belongs to Annabelle who speeds towards the entrance. Ben follows behind a little slower, and carelessly drops his bound captive onto the floor.

 

“Jeremy!” Elena moves towards him but Annabelle appears in front of her, blocking her way.

 

“Uh-uh. You get your brother back after I get what I came for.”

 

The Bennett witches face each other, hold hands tightly, and start chanting. _“Merabas Hic Libatal, Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis.”_ The fire from the torches suddenly burn fiercely and the place starts shaking. Bit by bit, the entrance to the tomb moves, showing a gap to squeeze through.

 

Bonnie looks up from the ground and stares for a moment, mesmerized at the tiny gap. A wide smile forms on her lips and she gasps, “It worked.”

 

“Of course it worked.” Annabelle grabs an unconscious Jeremy and yanks him towards the entrance. Elena intercepts her, pleading, “Why are you doing this?”

 

She rolls her eyes. “Several reasons. I need a blood bag and your brother is perfect for the job. Second, what makes you think I’m going in there alone without any assurance that you and your witch friend’s won’t seal me in?”

 

“Take me instead. Leave my brother alone. He’s innocent.” Annabelle raises a brow and takes a moment to consider Elena’s offer.

 

“Alright.”, she says as throws Jeremy back on the ground. She grabs Elena by the arm, forcing her into the tomb ahead of her. The moment they do, her minion Ben speeds away from the site. Stefan watches him go and then moves to go after her, but Grams grabs onto his arm as he passes by her, stopping him in his tracks.

 

“Stefan, if you go in there, you won’t come out!” Stefan turns around and lowers his voice. “W-what?! What did you do?”

 

Grams replies in her no-nonsense tone. “Opening the door didn’t remove the seal. It... Just opened the door.”

 

He says slowly, “What’s the seal?”

 

Grams’s reply brings new light to the information. “Some seals keep vampires from entering. This one keeps them from coming out.” There was the fine white line. Elena is human. She can leave. Certain that Annabelle would not be able to get out, he returns reluctantly back to his spot and begins to untie Jeremy’s bindings.

 

-A-

 

The petite vampire pulls her along roughly, and Elena stumbles along like a drunk, trying to keep up with the vampire’s fast pace dark as she desperately looks around trying to find her mother. The darkness confused her and she fumbled around for the flashlight she’d brought that was lodged deep in her jeans pocket. A dim light appears with a click as she flips the switch on the torch which didn’t do much to help but at least it afforded some light to the pitch black cave. They make another right, Elena desperately hoping that they weren’t lost and that Annabelle actually knew what she was doing. After walking for a while, she hears the vampire curse and instinctively asks, “What’s wrong?”

 

Annabelle whirls around, causing the light that Elena was point forward to shine right in her face. The dim, muted ray of light shines past the vampire and lands on the wall behind her. Elena takes a step back as the light illuminates what looks like a face. Curiously, she flashes the flashlight around and bites her lips to resist screaming as she jumps away in horror from the wall that she nearly leaned on. There were vampires everywhere; their bodies were caked full of dirt and layers of cobwebs. If she hadn’t been so terrified, it would have looked like fake decorations of mummies being propped up to scare visitors.

 

"Like what you see? This is one of the many masterpieces done by the lovely Katherine Pierce," Annabelle remarks sarcastically as she watches the Gilbert girl tremble in fear. "Give me that!" She snatches pocket watch out of her hands and scowls at the dim brightness. "Why didn't you tell me you had a light?" She throws a glare over her shoulder. Rolling her eyes at the silent response, she grabs the pathetic, almost useless human's wrist and tugs her along. _Did Gilbert really think they have perfect night vision in the dark?_ Sure, she could see but it wasn't as clear as she’d wanted to be. And this place was a maze. Her thoughts are interrupted when Gilbert starts piping annoying questions like "why didn't the vampires perish in the fire if the church was burned to the ground?"

 

She finds herself answering, figuring it would help shut the girl up. "Emily Bennett sealed the tomb to trap vampires in. But she wasn't as cruel as Katherine; she casted a ward to protect them so one day the tomb could be re-opened again."

 

Silence descends upon the pair once more as they hurry past the long narrow, winding corridors full of sleeping mummified vampires. They make several turns and even double back when they hit a few dead-ends. They come to a stop at a junction and Annabelle drops to her knees, one word escapes her lips as she breathlessly murmurs "Mama!"

 

Carefully, she brushes the cobwebs and a thin layer of dirt off her pale, ashen face and motions the Gilbert girl over impatiently. As soon as the human shuffles closer, Annabelle yanks her wrist towards her lips and a sharp pair of fangs pierces the flesh. A small rivet of blood seeps out of the tiny punctures and drip onto Pearl's crusted lips. A few minutes pass before the tip of a pinkish tongue darts out of its safe sanctuary and swipes a bit of blood off. Its eyelids reveal wide brown eyes darting between them both, and then settling unsteadily at Annabelle's gentle coaxing. Pearl whispers her daughter's name hoarsely. Annabelle shakes her head in response, her eyes watering at the sight of her mother in such a weak and helpless state.

 

Ignoring the fact that the Gilbert girl was struggling against her iron grip, she brings the wrist down to her mother's lips. "Shh Mama! Save your strength. Drink up. I'm getting you out of here."

 

Without preamble, Pearl sinks her fangs into the offered wrist and sucks hungrily, earning a soft gasp from Elena. It was the first food she'd seen in decades, yet, she halts her intake of fresh blood just as she feels a bit of strength returning. It was enough to allow her to stand but certainly not enough to walk out by herself. With her daughter supporting her, they slowly make their way back towards the exit. Pearl sees a gleam of light and noises coming from the other side. They quicken their pace, with a weakened Elena stumbling along behind, not wanting to stay in the tomb full of mummified vampires.

 

When they reach the exit, Anna tries to leave but finds herself unable to do so. Furious, she drags Elena towards the opening and drinks from the human. Already weakened from Pearl feeding on her, Elena has no energy to push the smaller vampire off her. When the Bennett witches continue to refuse their request, Pearl takes over and pierces Elena’s neck, drinking deeply. She looks straight at the witches, her teeth inches from Elena’s neck, and threatens them, “She doesn’t have much blood left. If you want your friend alive, remove the seal now.”

 

Conflicted, the witches eventually give in and do as they were ordered. Elena collapses on the ground the moment Pearl releases her. She faintly hears the mother and daughter talking about starting afresh in another town, another country. She can hear the witches chant again and the tomb trembles from the spell effects. The next thing she knows someone is dragging her up to her feet and shoved unceremoniously out. Right into Stefan’s safe arms. Fast losing consciousness, she can hear him soothing her, “Everything is going to be okay, Elena.” Crimson blood is poured into her lips and she can feel his blood working to replenish her blood loss.

 

“Jeremy,” she inquires weakly.

 

Stefan shushes her kindly. “He’s fine. I compelled him to forget.”

 

When the color comes back to her cheeks, and Elena is strong enough to walk again, Stefan escorts the siblings back home. Before they go into the house, he hands them two bracelets laced with vervain; one for her, one for Jeremy. He had originally wanted to give the necklace back to Elena but it had mysteriously vanished.

 

_Katherine…_ His mind momentarily wanders to a certain vampire as he thought about the necklace, wondering what the crazy bitch and his whimsical brother were up to. Jeremy enters the house first and heads into the kitchen immediately, his empty stomach growling loudly. Elena turns around to face Stefan who is bemusing himself by tucking away a stray hair behind her ear. She thanks him again and turns to head inside. Just before she can step through the threshold, he blurts out suddenly, “You’re adopted.”

 

**-A-**

 

Those words take a moment to register in Elena’s ears. She whirls around, still shocked and temporarily stunned by his admission. “W-what are you talking about?”

 

Stefan runs his fingers through his head before he begins his explanation, “You wanted to know why you look so much like Katherine? I didn’t have the answers then, Elena. You are a Gilbert. She’s a Pierce. But the resemblance was too uncanny so I dug deeper and then, I learned the truth.”

 

Elena sits jerkily on the porch steps and he hesitantly sits next to her, making sure to leave a gap. He waits for the information to sink in before he continues to explain slowly, “Your birth certificate from the city records says Elena Gilbert, Mystic Falls General Hospital. However, there was no record of your mother being admitted or her being pregnant.”

 

Elena runs her hand through her hair before choking out, “No, that’s not-. It can’t be-” Elena starts and stops mid-sentence. Deep down in her heart, she knows everything he just said was the truth. How else could anyone explain this...this eerie likeness? It wasn’t just that they look alike; the proportions of both their faces were so indistinguishable that it felt as though they are a carbon copy of each other. They weren’t twins. Even fraternal twins don’t look identical; they had tiny, subtle differences in appearances. Clones, Elena finally decides in hysteria. But she shoots the thought down when she remembers that scientists haven’t even gotten past animal trials...

 

It pained him to watch Elena struggle within herself when she’d found out that she and Katherine had the same face. That she was a dead ringer to his ex-girlfriend. All he wanted to do since she found Katherine’s picture in his study, was to set things right. He should have told her the truth. He should have trusted her. He grabs her hand which was resting on her thigh and gives her a small smile. “Hey. Listen to me. It doesn’t matter. You are nothing like Katherine. I watched you. I learned everyth-”

 

Before he could finish what he wanted to say, stands up abruptly, her hand going to her throbbing temple after trying to ingest all the information Stefan just dumped on her. It was too much and certainly too fast for her already puzzled mind to comprehend. “I- I can’t do this. I’m sorry, Stefan. I- I need time to process all…” She gestures with her hands, “This.” She watches him nod and smile gently, his hands going back to his jeans pockets. “Take all the time you need, Elena.”

 

She bids him good night and enters her house without turning to check if he’d left. She hears Jeremy pattering around in the kitchen and leaves him be. He’s alive and safe. That’s all that matters. She trudges wearily up the stairs and opens her bedroom door to find another vampire lounging casually on her bed, ankles crossed over each other. She blinks, confused. “Katherine, w-what are you doing here?”

 

She stops short, realizing she could speak to the older vampire despite the events that had taken place at the boarding house earlier that day. She frowns at the vampire perplexed. “Wait. How-”

 

Katherine silences her with a single finger to her lips and smiles sweetly behind Elena. “Hello Stefan.”

 

Elena jumps in shock at Katherine’s greeting and feels the presence of a person - vampire – come up behind her. Stefan pushes Elena behind him protectively, growling at Katherine. “Katherine, get out of Elena’s room.”

 

She remains unmoved. “Can’t I visit my double? I’m quite curious about her,” she smiles sweetly at a tired Elena peeking behind Stefan.

 

“Katherine, I won’t tell you twice.” Getting annoyed by Stefan’s interruption, the seductress switches tact. She focuses on Elena and asks, “Do you want me to leave, Elena?”

 

Two pairs of eyes turn to Elena, throwing her into the spotlight causing her to become flustered. On one hand, she wants to say yes due to Stefan’s puppy-dog eyes and his soft quiet encouragement - “You can say yes, Elena. She’s not going to hurt you.” But on the other hand, she wants to speak with her vampire twin and know more. She looks between the two and says nothing. After a few darting looks here and there, Stefan interprets her silence as a no and yanks Katherine off the bed causing Elena to become slightly irritated at his decision to choose for her. They are halfway towards her bedroom door before Elena replies quietly, not looking at Stefan. “I want her to stay. You can go.”

 

Katherine yanks her arm out of his bruising grip and goes back to sitting on her bed, smirking at her ex-lover. Stefan folds his arms and narrows his eyes at the vampire who starts occupying herself with her nails. “What have you done to her?”

 

“I gave her the Grimoire which saved her brother. How is your brother, Elena?” She asks her doppelganger. Elena eyes the bathroom and sighs. She’s tired, and covered in grime and cobwebs from stumbling around in the tomb. She just wants to take a shower and sleep. Katherine, being here, probably means she wanted to raid her wardrobe again which Elena didn’t mind because she had questions for the vampire that needed to be answered.

 

Elena replies, “He’s fine. Stefan compelled him to forget.” She turns to Stefan and points to the window. Stefan looks like he wants to protest, but the look Elena gives him stops him before he can say anything and he leaves without another word. Silence descends between the two doppelgangers. Katherine leans on her side, playing on her curls, “What did you want to know?”

 

Elena asks, “Why is that I can speak to you now; back at the boarding house, I couldn’t even utter your name, let alone talk to you.”

 

Katherine smirks at her doppelganger, “I compelled you to keep our friendship a secret. You can’t tell anyone of our conversations or talk about me unless I say otherwise.” Elena opens her mouth to protest but stops as she sees Katherine’s eyes harden. “It’s for the best, Elena. For your protection and mine. You’ve seen Stefan and what he tries to do. They wouldn’t understand, Elena. Now, is that all?”

 

Elena blinks at the vampire’s honesty. She wasn’t expecting Katherine to disclose anything without throwing a sarcastic quip or something rude. She walks backwards, jabbing in the direction of the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower...”

 

Katherine interrupts her sentence with a sly grin, making the younger girl blush. “Is that an invitation, Gilbert?”

 

Elena stutters, “I-I was going to ask if you would still be here when I was done.”

 

Katherine shrugs and spreads herself out on Elena’s bed, staring at her retreating form. “No promises.”

 

Once Katherine’s enhanced hearing picks up on the shower spray being turned on, she hops off the bed and heads into the kitchen. There she finds Jeremy Gilbert busy raiding the fridge. He turns to her, grinning at her appearance oblivious to his sister suddenly sprouting curls in her hair and in a vastly different outfit. “Hey, you want some? We’ve got lasagna, meatloaf, buffalo wings... Oh pizza!”

 

She gives a half-closed smile and crosses the room in quick strides. He ended up eating the cold pizza straight from the box. She pipes up suddenly, gaining his attention immediately. “Do you remember Vicki Donovan?”

 

-A-

 

Kathrine returns roughly around the same time Elena closes the bathroom door, already dressed for bed. She holds up a half-eaten carton of Ben & Jerry and two spoons and shrugs at Elena’s silent questioning stare. “I figured your talk warrants ice cream.”

 

They sit opposite each other on the carpeted floor, digging enthusiastically at the half-eaten carton between them. Elena comments after sucking on her spoon, “This is Jeremy’s favorite. How did you manage to sneak this past him?”

 

“I have my wonderful charming personality,” Katherine teases, drawing a light laugh from her doppelganger who retorts back playfully.

 

Elena digs her spoon into the ice cream carton and raises a brow at Katherine’s reply, “This is my brother we’re talking about who hoards his favorite foods and hides them in secret hidden compartments in the fridge.”

 

“Super speed works like a charm,” Katherine smirks to which Elena shakes her head angling downwards to hide a smile. She takes a few minutes to recompose herself and then remembers the very question she had wanted to ask before Stefan interrupted them.

 

Bluntly, Elena blurts out. “Did you know I was adopted?”

 

Katherine eyes her and takes her time digging her spoon deep into the tub to scoop up a bigger portion of the ice cream. She licks the sides and then swallows the chunk. Licking her lips, she answers carefully, “I had my suspicions. But yes, you are descended from my line.”

 

“Why didn’t you say anything? You knew from the beginning!” Elena accuses the vampire. Katherine keeps her head down without looking at Elena and shrugs noncommittally. “It wasn’t important.”

 

Elena persists stubbornly, unwilling to drop the topic. “It is. It is to me. Back then when we first met, I asked you how we looked exactly alike. You told me I was asking the wrong question.”

 

Katherine straightens up slightly, mildly surprised that her doppelganger remembered that particular conversation. She smirks. “You’re still asking the wrong question.”

 

Elena sighs tiredly and asks, “What is the right question?”

 

Katherine drops her spoon to the almost empty carton as she contemplates her answer. Telling the human would only raise more questions. Questions to answers she’d rather keep to herself. She glances back at Elena who is waiting patiently for her answer. Pursuing her lips, she replies softly, “You really want to know?”

 

Elena nods nervously and Katherine leans closer towards Elena, staring hard into her wide doe-like eyes. Elena feels a strange, soothing haze cloud her senses. A soft, sweet-sounding voice speaks, “This conversation never happened. I stopped by to pay you a visit and left shortly after Stefan. You took a shower and now you’re going to bed.”

 

Elena blinks slowly and gets up from her position. Oblivious to the vampire seductress standing a few feet away and watching her closely, she pulls back the comforter and lies on her bed, bringing the comforter to her chest. Her eyelids droop heavily and they flutter shut. She neither feels the pair of feminine hands clasp the vervain bracelet back onto her wrist, nor does she hear the window shutting quietly.

 

**-A-**

 

Three and a half hours later, near the center of town, Alaric stumbles and falls gracelessly out of the dumpster. He feels confused and totally dazed, staring blearily at his surroundings. How am I alive? He remembers Damon Salvatore plunging the stake into his heart. He should be dead, not alive - not that he wasn’t grateful. But this is a whole new level of crazy. He claws at his buttoned shirt and yanks it open, ripping buttons along the way. There was no chest wound; no gaping hole to illustrate the earlier events. The only evidence that stopped him from going mad was the dried blood smeared onto his chest and his blood-stained shirt.

 

The ring… Alaric remembers something from a time when Isobel had given it to him before she had ‘died,’. He remembered her telling him something about it having some ancient magical protection against supernatural creatures.


	9. A Devious Plan

_She threw me out. This isn't like her at all. Katherine must have to had Elena compelled. It was one of her multiple mind games; I need to discover her true motive before its too late._

 

Stefan gets into his car and drives back home. He reaches in eighteen minutes, opting to enjoy his peaceful solitude before dealing with his brother. He speeds inside and spies his brother in the parlor lounging on the couch and drinking a glass of blood. He ignores Damon greeting and makes to head upstairs when he catches something that makes him pause. He turns around to find Damon smirking infuriatingly. "What did you just say?"

 

Still wearing his superior smirk, he replies "Too lost in your thoughts, brother? Day-dreaming of Elena Gilbert in your bed... or perhaps of Katherine... I think you want them both in your bed, bathed in Elena's blood. Have you ever thought of what she tastes like?"

 

Stefan speeds towards Damon and grasps the collar of his shirt, yanking him off the seat. He growls protectively, morphing into his vampire phase. "Stay away from her! I don't think of Elena that way." He finishes weakly.

 

Damon just laughs mockingly. "But the Ripper in you yearns for her blood." Damon doesn't bother to tear himself from his younger, weaker brother. He jabs his index finger into Stefan's chest to get his point across instead. "You don't just want to taste her; you want her all to yourself. To bleed her dry. To consume all of her until there's nothing left. Her name will be just another forgotten name added to the list."

 

"No! No, that's not true." Stefan releases him and steps backward. "You're drunk," He accuses as his eyes narrow at the half-empty glass in Damon's grip. Damon shrugs uncaringly and returns to his original position. "Not completely. Though, Mystic Fall High will have to look for a new history teacher."

 

The front door opens and swings shut as another presence makes itself known to them. The glass of blood disappears from Damon's lax grip and reappears swinging on the other leather armchair. "Did you miss me Stefan?" There, sitting cross-legged in front of him in the flesh, Katherine takes a slow, leisurely sip. Crimson blood coats her beautiful lips and she sighs in content. Unsure if it was the scent of blood or her mere presence that kept him paralyzed, his eyes lock on her stained succulent lips, wondering if Elena tasted as divine as Kathrine. He blinks as thoughts run rampage in his mind. Remembering Damon's words, he snaps back to reality as he scowls darkly and stalks away from the pair before he loses his control. He curses under his breath at Damon getting under his skin and speeds further away from the pair who undoubtedly had heard him if Damon's loud outburst or a soft peal of laughter that follows were any indication.

 

He grabs his jacket and pulls the hood over his head, before leaving the Boarding House by the back exit. He pounces on the nearest deer he comes across and drinks hungrily. He reluctantly lets the frightened animal go the moment he feels its heartbeat weaken and slow. Deeper into the forest he speeds, tearing into the animal flesh he encounters along his way.

 

He comes to a jog at a human pace and realizes he's near the church ruins which contained the tomb vampires of 1864 Katherine betrayed. Empty beer bottles and a small fire pit litter were scattered in the clearing. Stefan recalls from memory of a party ongoing nearby. It looked as if they had moved during the night. He studies the multiple shoe prints overlapping each other. Concluding his suspicion that the drunken teenagers had gone towards the direction of the church, he hurries off.

 

There were more beer bottles lying around the cemetery. He swings open the rusty black gate and steps in cautiously. He spots a male teenager lying face down on the ground, one hand wrapped around a bottle now empty. The liquid had already flowed out of the bottle and onto the grassy patch. Rolling his eyes, Stefan nudges the human with his tip of his shoe. The teen didn't budge. Figuring that this party-goer had had one too many, he bends down to shake his shoulders. A smell reaches his nose and he stiffens immediately as his blood runs cold. He rolls the body over to find dried blood all over the teen's clothes. The neck was torn and ripped open viciously. Bite marks were scattered on both his wrists and forearms. He surveys the abandoned area with a grim expression.

 

_How long ago had they fed on him?_

 

Quickly, Stefan jogs towards the entrance of the tomb, all his senses on high alert. Just as he feared, more bodies with similar marks littered the area. Upon realizing it is only a little past two in the morning and judging from the sheer alarming bite marks on the corpses, it was a probable estimate that approximately a dozen of the 1864 vampires had escaped. He stops at the entrance of the tomb, where a small gap revealed. He rummages deep into his pockets and pulls out a tiny pocket flashlight. Switching it on, he edges slowly and carefully inside. With the seal broken, anyone inside could have walked out. He just needed to confirm the number of escapees.

 

He finds himself wandering around the tunnels in circles and doubling back to hit dead ends. Even though he had the flashlight, he still manages to stumble onto something unmovable. His hands braces for the impact of the unforgiving, hard concrete floor but instead, they meet something soft covered in a wet, sticky fluid.

 

He fumbles around for the flashlight in the dark which had fallen when he had tripped and shines the light on the spot where he had fallen. He stares in horror at the mangled, indescribable body.

 

It looked to be the very first victim the blood-starved tomb vampires feasted on. It’s limbs and head were missing from the torso, torn to shreds. The sight was too horrifying; even for him, to digest what he'd seen. He speeds out of the tomb and heaves dryly, tightly squeezing his eyelids shut as if he could unseen the brutality.

 

The victim must have gotten curious and squeezed himself through the tight gap. Just thinking about what could have happened made him sick in his gut. What came next probably resulted in the escape of the ravenous vampires and the remaining of his friends being drained.

 

He doubted the tomb vampires - two dozen if he estimated correctly - had daylight rings on. Back in 1864, they had kept to themselves and were not seen on bright, cloudless days. There had to be a property nearby. He mused. They couldn't have gone that far.

 

Stefan speeds away from the scene and tries to track the already fading, multiple boot prints in the muddy areas. He speeds quickly to a cry of help coming from that direction. He snaps a tree branch along the way and flings the vampire away from the girl. "Run!" He shouts and she scampers away in fright, one hand pressed against her neck. Holding the vampire firmly in place, his face changes. He growls, "Where are they?" The vampire appears no older than 22 based on physical looks alone. Said vampire points his finger shakily at the direction vaguely. "Its just ahead sir," he stammers. Stefan's face returns to normal as he thanks the fella and then plunges the makeshift pointy end of the thick tree branch into the vampire's heart. He tracks the remaining vampires to a lone property just off the side of a dirt path leading to the main road. He hides behind a broad tree and watches as a woman in her mid-fifties invites them into her house.

 

Remembering the girl he helped earlier, he doubles back and reaches her side in minutes. She hadn't gone far with blood dripping from her torn collarbone. She was losing too much blood. He makes to bite into his wrist to feed her some of his blood but he never got the chance. Her blood spills out from the open wound and drips to the ground. He hears her crying weakly, her bloodied hand reaching for him.

 

Something deep within him snaps and the monster rises, overpowering his conscience. Growling at the bloody scent, the Ripper yanks the weakened, struggling girl and bites deep into the wound, ripping the flesh with ease. It gulps the blood greedily, filling its empty stomach. It’s quench for blood is satiated for now.

 

The Ripper had been waiting for a long time to gain control, now that it’s pathetic other self had lost to the temptation. It was far too long it had been forced to drink animal blood. It was weak and tasted ridiculously disgusting, just like it’s humane self. The Ripper chuckles darkly to itself. This one is bled dry with her head still intact.

 

He wonders vaguely if his human side would remember this particular memory. _Oh what would he write on that wall now that she's dead and nameless?_

 

Torn between wanting the body to be found and not wanting to be rediscovered so easily, he picks up a shovel resting near the church wall and begins digging a large but shallow pit to accommodate the corpses and then refills it with dirt. He returns to the boarding house in a blur, coming to a rest in the basement.

 

His humane, conscious self loved to do the right thing which would have been to inform his brother and ex-lover that the tomb vampires had escaped. However, the Ripper feels no loyalty towards anyone except his own. He snags a blood bag from the freezer and rips the tear off. Methodically, he begins to fill a couple of empty plastic bottles that once used to hold animal blood in case of emergencies. He puts the bottles full of human blood into a small box and attaches a note. Satisfied with his work, he speeds out with the box in one hand.

 

It was a sunny, cloudless morning with little wind. What a perfect weather.

 

The Ripper speeds to the lone house where he had last seen the vampires. The windows are tightly shut with the curtains drawn. He crooks a smile at his luck as he raps his knuckle hard against the wooden door and leaves the box at the door mat. The content of the note was curt and brief: _Clock tower. 10 sharp. Come alone._

 

He heads back to the boarding house with a light bounce in his steps. The house seems awfully quiet, even for a place with three vampires residing. He disappears into his bedroom and finds Katherine reading intently on the center of his bed, her back is nestled against the soft pillows with her left leg bent and the other stretched out.

 

She turns a page giving no indication of spotting him leaning against the door frame. When she finally glances up at him, she says, "You haven't written anything since I showed up."

 

He walks into his room and sits on the nearest desk chair, watching her watch him.  After a while, he breaks the silence, "There wasn't anything worth mentioning."

 

Her facial expression doesn't change in the slightest as she studies him. Her head tilts a little to the side and a corner of her lips lifts to form a wry smirk. "Not even about Elena Gilbert?"

 

_Elena who?_ Oh she must have meant her double with boring straight hair and wide doe-eyes. The Ripper contemplates his next words carefully, wanting to see how far he can push before Stefan's ex-lover notices something is amiss. "I'll write something once I get to taste her," he half-jokes, earning a strange furrowed look.

 

She sits up straighter, her dark eyes burrowing holes into his own.

 

_Was I too obvious?_

 

She murmurs quietly, her voice mixed with suspicion and something else he couldn't decipher. "You have yet to kick me out. Maybe you do miss me after all these years." She scoots towards the end of the bed and saunters past with a closed smile. He grabs hold of her arm as she brushes past him. "Stay out of my room," he ends his warning with a mighty quick squeeze of her forearm before letting go.

 

-A-

 

The Ripper stays seated in the chair, his ears straining to hear past the continuous flow of water running in the kitchen. He catches garbled words which made no sense.

 

Catching sight of the discarded journal, he gets up to reach for it. He flips to the latest page and finds it blank. She was telling the truth; Stefan hadn't written anything for the past two weeks. A maniacal idea forms in his mind and his lips curl up wickedly.

 

Grabbing a pen, he starts writing today's date at the top right corner, mirroring the format as the previous journal entries. _What shall I write?_

 

Neat, cursive words form on the pages steadily, wet black ink coaxed out with a slightest bit of pressure from the modern fountain pen, promising of future plans for the human girl and the unraveling of Stefan's demise. He gleefully reveals his current plan in great detail.

 

* * *

_20 Minutes Ago..._  

The door slams shuts, jarring Katherine out of her inner musings. She spots Damon and waves him over, with an indulgent smile, only to have his head jerk towards another room. Without waiting for a response, he turns and moves quickly towards the room. Curious, she saunters behind him and frowns at him as he turns on the faucet sink in the kitchen.

 

“We have a problem. Alaric is alive.”

 

“How is this my problem? I didn’t kill him,” Katherine crosses her arms and glares heatedly. “I told you not to do anything stupid.”

 

* * *

_ Gilberts House, 3:30pm _

The Gilbert siblings trudge into their cosy living room after a long day of school. Elena drops her book bag onto the center of the couch and sits at one end. Jeremy occupies the other, reaching for the TV remote. As he flips through channel after channel, searching for something to watch; Elena had already started on her homework, using the hard end of the couch arm rest as support.

 

Time flies quickly as she nears the completion of her homework. An odd sound coming from the kitchen breaks her concentration. She glances up and realizes she is the only occupant in the room. She hears more grumbling and more chinking sounds. With aroused curiosity, Elena gets up from the seat and goes to investigate, stretching and rolling her shoulders.

 

She stifles a laugh at the sight of Jeremy digging at an almost empty fridge, grumbling noisily. There were piles of containers holding leftovers from this week, scattered over the kitchen island counter. She raises a brow and clears her throat. "What are you doing?"

 

Jeremy pokes his head out, scrunching his face. "I can't find my ice cream. I saw it here last night, and now it’s gone!" He bemoans and Elena burst out laughing. "It’s not funny!"

 

She continues teasing, "You were awfully hungry last night. Maybe you ate it and then dreamt you didn't?!"

 

He continues to insist he never touched any desserts last night except an apple pie. She takes a peek at the spot he's pointing at.

 

She stares at the not-so-secret compartment and rolls her eyes. Her voice tinges with exasperation, "Jer, I don't even know how you've managed to hide an ice cream carton in there, much less squeeze it in."

 

"It can be done, 'lena!"

 

"Its meant for ice!"

 

They mock argue in the kitchen until Jenna returns home, demanding they put everything back. It was these little moments of normalcy that has Elena cherishing her dorky brother even more.

 

**-A-**

 

The evening sky turns darker as the sun sets and the moon peeks out shyly, blanketing her soft moonlight glow as street lights flicker on as scheduled. Standing directly in front of the clock tower spies a loner dressed in a button-down plaid shirt and dark pants.

 

The Ripper grins to himself and sneaks behind the lone vampire, catching him in a dangerous headlock. He hisses into the ear, "I have a job for you. The bitch is back in town with the Salvatore brothers. I can supply you with vervain to keep her weak. Make it look like she left town. I'd hate to be your clean-up crew."

 

The minion struggles against the hold. He chokes out a weak protest. "Why should we listen to you?" _This one is strong._ The Ripper squeezes his throat at the vampire's rude retort. "I opened the tomb. I can very well haul you and your kind back... leaving you and your family desiccating in eternal torment. Or, you can do what I say, and your family gets a second chance at freedom."

 

He agrees to the terms quickly. _For revenge._ He will relay the message to his boss. The Ripper hums happily, "That is fortunate for you. Your family would not like to lose another." He snaps the vampire's neck and dumps the motionless body near their hideout.


	10. Pretending To Be You

A large glowing sphere rises slowly into the dull morning sky from the west, casting sunbeams in every direction until it illuminates the small town. Tiny tendrils of sunlight filter past glass panels and through the curtains. Its soft warmth engulfs the sleeping form of Elena Gilbert tossing and turning restlessly in her sleep. Again, she tosses and feels her shoulders tap softly against something unmovable. Her brows furrow in confusion when a faint scent of roses tinge with blood wafts into her airway. Her nose twitches unconsciously at the unfamiliar scents on her pillow. Her eyes squint open blearily and takes in a reflection of herself, just mere inches away, staring at her with a coy smile.

 

"Good morning Elena," her own voice purrs sweetly.

 

She blinks and blinks until her sleep-addled brain finally registers the vampire lying next to her, already dressed in a new outfit. Freaking out at the close proximity, she jerks back instantly and fails to realize she's almost at the edge of the bed. She finds herself falling, her arms flailing wildly to grab onto something. Anything.

 

The next thing she knows she is tugged back to safety in the center of her bed. Still facing Elena, Katherine now has her palm supporting her head, her elbow resting on the pillow throw. Her other hand plays with a loose thread on her bedspread.

 

Elena instinctively tugs the comforter upward to protect her modesty. She insists, "You need to stop doing that."

 

Katherine quirks a brow innocently as she teases, "Stop saving you?"

 

Elena retorts quickly, resisting a smile tugging the corner of her lips. "Showing up unannounced. How long have you been here?" Oh my god! Has she been watching me sleep this whole time?

 

Katherine smirks at her, letting the younger girl draw her own conclusion. Silence descends upon the pair until Elena lets out a long defeating sigh and turns away from her, pulling the comforter up and over her head. Hiding in the temporary darkness she created, she almost manages to return to her peaceful slumber but is rudely jarred out of it by Katherine's question. "Are you doing anything today?"

 

Elena groans loudly and mumbles incoherently. Frowning at the lack of attention, Katherine snakes her arm around Elena's waist and turns her over until she is lying on her back. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

 

The corner of her lip twitches while Elena flushes beet red against the older vampire's warmth; much to Katherine's great amusement. In response, Katherine doesn't move her arm away. Instead she snuggles closer; much to the younger girl's discomfort.

 

Elena squirms and wiggles uncomfortably against Katherine's playful embrace. Slowly, she pulls the comforter down, revealing Elena's bashful face. "Let's try that again. What are your plans for today?"

 

Elena replies, leveling a glare. "I have a study session with my friends at the grill."

 

"You look so adorable when you're all hot and bothered." Katherine throws her a compliment in return causing Elena's face to turn into a brighter shade of red.

 

Trapped within the confines of the comforter which was her own undoing, she glares annoyingly at Katherine. Rolling her eyes at her grumpy double, she continues "Damon's taking me to watch a baseball game. And we need to do something about your hair."

 

Surprised by Katherine's voluntary information, Elena's annoyance dissipates. "I didn't know you like baseball, or any sports. Why can't you straighten yours instead?"

 

Katherine scoffs. "I don't. However, Bennett unsealed the tomb which freed the tomb vampires. Gotta blend into the crowd till we get rid of them."

 

She gives Elena's hair a gentle tug and starts to scoot towards the end of the bed. "Come here, Elena. I don't have all day." She gestures impatiently, the curler in hand.

 

Elena rolls around in bed muttering sleepily. I better do what she asks or else she’ll never leave. She slowly untangles herself from the comforter and shuffles towards the dresser. She sits down carelessly, ignoring Katherine's disapproving stare at her messy bed hair. As soon as she feels her hair being combed gently, she nods off to the familiar soothing sensation.

 

* * *

 

Mystic Grill House 2:30pm

 

Elena left her car parked near the grill house and makes her way towards the entrance. Not paying attention to her surroundings as she replies to Caroline's text message, she side-steps a person in front of her, whom she attempts to walk around but finds herself pinned against the wall roughly instead. A hand grips her neck firmly and a very familiar voice growls "What are you doing here, Katherine?"

 

Her phone clatters to the ground as her hands goes to her neck and pry open those fingers. Dark spots swim into her vision as her brown eyes meet his. She struggles to breathe and chokes out a weak protest. "S-Stefan... it's.... E-Elena. Not... K-Katherine!"

 

Only when his ears pick up her heartbeat thumping louder, he releases her immediately. He apologizes profusely and winces while she coughs and massages the pain away. His attempts to calm Elena physically backfires as she presses her back against the wall in fear, her eyes tracking his every move. He curses internally at his rash actions. He had reacted to the curls and never gave a thought that it could be Elena herself.

 

Taking a step back to give her space, he slowly bends down to pick her phone and book bag up from the ground. He straightens up slowly, not wanting to scare Elena anymore.

 

"Why did you curl your hair, Elena?" He attempts at some small talk as he hands her belongings back to her and she takes them quickly. He sees her eyes track to the right slightly where the grill entrance is. Some people glance at them before walking past to enter the grill house. Elena replies raspily, "I thought I'd try something new. It seemed like a good idea at that time."

 

She had to admit, after Katherine was done curling her hair, that she’d looked good. Even Katherine had seem pleased with the result. "You're like a mini version of me. The less cute one."

 

She edges shiftily past his darkening expression and towards The Grill. "Stay away from Katherine, Elena," Stefan warns.

 

She nods quickly and with another quick glance, she scuttles inside. Staying away from Katherine was far easier said than done as the vampire always visited her. She wonders what Katherine did to instill such a great distrust.

 

She finds Bonnie occupying one of the booths in the corner and makes her way over.

 

"Hey Elena," her friend greets her as she slinks into the opposite seat. She doesn’t miss her best friend’s action as she looks over her shoulder one more time before unloading her book bag.

 

The wary action doesn't go unnoticed. "Are you okay, Elena?"

 

Elena smiles tightly as she lies, "Yes, I'm fine. I received a text from Caroline. She says she's going to be late." Bonnie nods and starts flipping through the textbook.

 

They order coffee sometime later. A white chocolate mocha for Bonnie and a caramel macchiato for Elena. She takes a sip of her drink and continues working on the sums in her notebook.

 

* * *

In a far end of The Grill, a pair of young men watch the girls work quietly. They wear similar plaid buttoned long-sleeved shirts, light-colored trousers, and leather shoes. As people enter and leave The Grill with a cup of coffee or a paper bag of food, the pair stick to themselves, conversing quietly.

 

Approximately twenty minutes ago, the busboy had walked towards their booth again and asked if they would like to order something from the menu. One of them speaks and then slips a small vial of clear liquid to the busboy. The busboy leaves and walks back to the counter while the pair sit back and watch patiently.

 

Minutes later, the girls wave the same busboy over. He goes back to the counter and starts preparing their ordered drinks. He uncorks the vial and pours it into the girl's drink and then finishes it with a light buttery caramel drizzle. He serves them and the girls thank him.

 

Two pairs of watchful eyes are kept on the girl who looks like Katherine Pierce. She takes a tiny sip but nothing happens. She carries on unaware of the narrowed expressions now forming on their faces. They exchange a glance. Perhaps it was not enough to cause an immediate reaction. Without a word, they turn back to the girls and continue their observation.

 

* * *

Elsewhere in Mystic Falls, Damon and Katherine settle down to watch a baseball game. In order to look inconspicuous, Damon chooses to sit next to a family with three young children. All under the age of eight screaming and yelling. Katherine spots Elena's friends, Matt and Tyler, glance oddly in her direction before sitting a few rows in front of them.

 

One of the kids has taken the spot next to her, yapping noisily while playing one of those obnoxious games with loud, repetitive music background blaring. Initially, Katherine ignores the kid. But after a while, her patience runs dry. She shifts closer to Damon and hisses into his ear, "This has got to be one of your worst ideas for a date."

 

Damon replies in the same low tone, "Well, You shouldn't have given the Grimoire to the Gilbert girl.” Katherine pouts and he rolls his eyes and continues, “It's just for a couple of hours, then we'll head home or somewhere else. Try not to kill the kid."

 

She curses under her breath in Bulgarian and reattempts to focus on the game of which she has absolutely no idea what is going on. Silly humans sliding in circles.

 

The game ends a good two and a half hours later. Next to them, the family had begun packing up. The parents round the kids up without much effort compared to the beginning of the game and they file in obediently and silently.

 

Katherine stretches languidly like a feline, basking in the silence. She half-turns on the bench and catches Damon's puzzled expression.

 

"Did you compel the brats to shut up?" He inquires, clearly amused.

 

Katherine smirks sweetly in response. "I don't know what you're talking about."

 

* * *

Boarding House, 6pm

 

It's getting easier pretending to be you. Elena's afraid of you. Your brother is going to enjoy ripping you apart for taking her away. And I have eternity to torment you until you submit to me.

 

'Stefan' talks to himself in front of the mirror whilst changing into another clean shirt. A bloodied buttoned shirt drapes over his chair. At the sound of multiple glass panels shattering and lots of commotion coming from below, the Ripper begins its retreat back into its sanctuary.


	11. Taken

A sharp, piercing pain filters into his consciousness; he squints, his eyes forcibly, taking in the current state of the room. The place was in shambles...again. Broken shards of glass covered the carpeted floor, couches were flipped upside-down. There was blood droplets of still unbeating hearts lying discarded next to dead tomb vampires. He drags himself to the open window, moving only his arms while grunting painfully. A blanket of stars cover the cloudless dark blue sky.

 

"No, no, no," he mutters to himself.

 

How could they know she was here? There are two of them walking around! His thoughts run a mile per minute as he flutters through different scenarios. Each one became more absurd. Nothing made sense.

 

His hand reaches behind his back to pull the poker stick out, but it lay stubbornly out of reach. He screams in pain as someone else from behind roughly pulls the metal rod out. He hears his name being called repeatedly and is turned over.

 

"Damon! What happened?" Stefan's concerned eyes scan his body for any other protruding sharp objects. Finding none, he mutters, "Hang on. Let me get some blood."

 

He leaves Damon for a few minutes before hurrying back with a couple of blood bags. He rips the corner and gives it to his brother who gulps the replenishing liquid eagerly. He downs a second one within seconds of the first. He makes a satisfied noise and then proceeds to demand to know where Stefan was earlier.

 

His brother replies, frowning at the scene. "I was upstairs." There was an edge of confusion in his tone. Damon yells, "You were upstairs? Why the hell didn't you come to our aid?! They took Katherine. We have to go save her."

 

Stefan blocks him immediately. "It's too dangerous Damon. There's too many of them."

 

Damon shoves him out of the way. "Get out of my way, Stefan!"

 

His younger brother remains firm as he tries to reason with his obstinate brother. "You don't even know where they took her. You can't just go charging in without a plan."

 

Damon huffs as he grudgingly admits Stefan's point.

 

"Fine," he growls, glaring dangerously at Stefan who steps back hesitantly. Damon cocks a brow at him and watches Stefan leave the room. He can't help but feel Damon's eyes are boring holes into his head.

 

As his brother disappears around the corner, he thinks to himself. I'll just get Bennett to do a locator spell. I'll rescue her myself if I have to.

 

* * *

The next day, Damon waits impatiently while leaning against the school building brick wall, arms crossed with an annoyed expression. Barbie had been ignoring every text and call from him. Granted, he tried to use her to further his plans but he had apologized very nicely. Finally, the school bell rings and the school exit doors swing open as the student masses rush outside.

 

His enhanced hearing picks up Caroline's continuous stream of chatter and he briefly wonders how she could cram all of that into one breath. They were taking their sweet time and he groans in frustration at their slow paces. Three sets of footsteps edge closer towards him and he springs into action.

 

"Bonnie! My favorite girl."

 

"What do you want, Damon?" Bonnie folds her arms and fixes him a steely glare. He is undeterred and flashes them, especially her, a charming smile.

 

"I need your witchy magic to locate someone for me, please." He says in as polite a tone as he can muster.

 

She raises a brow at his sudden politeness and studies him. There was something different. His hair was more disheveled than ordinary (not that she was attentive to his good looks.) However, today he seemed oddly distracted and hadn’t begun with the usual rude sarcasm.

 

Behind her, Caroline was demanding he leave her alone and that she wouldn’t be helping him do any of his dirty work. Elena questions Damon about who he is searching for.

 

He turns to her and says snarkily, "Bonnie unsealed the tomb vampires and now they're out wandering about. This is your fault, Gilbert."

 

Elena replies quickly, slightly confused. "How is this my fault?"

 

Damon snaps. "Because the tomb vampires from 1864 have Katherine and will kill her for betraying them." He turns back to Bonnie and continues wheedling promises of him leaving town for good if she helps him out, thereby missing Elena's horrified expression.

 

After a long moment, Bonnie sighs. "I'll need something of hers to do the locator spell."

 

He perks up at the news and tells her he has just the thing and speeds away. Caroline spins her best friend around. "Why are you helping him? He can't be trusted."

 

Bonnie replies calmly, "Did you not hear what he said, Care? Helping him ensures he will leave town quicker... and I want him gone."

 

* * *

Katherine's locket has to be in here somewhere. Damon muses as he ransacks through his younger brother's belongings. He knows that as much as Stefan's was adamant about his unwavering feelings of denial about Katherine, deep down he was still sentimental and would definitely keep the locket in his room.

 

"Uh... what do you think you're doing?" Stefan asks as he steps into his room, surveying the mess caused by his brother.

 

"Where is the locket? I know you kept it," Damon asks without stopping as he continues opening drawers and rummaging through them.

 

"It's been missing ever since Katherine came back, Damon. You're not going to find it here," Stefan replies calmly and waits patiently for his older brother to leave. Damon straightens up from his spot and gives the bookshelf a good, long look.

 

Without turning around, he speaks slowly as cogs begin to turn in his mind. "You know, Katherine is stronger than both of us combined so it wasn't very wise to ambush her alone. She would have anticipated your attack. But if you added a little bit of vervain and some distraction...." Damon turns to face Stefan who is just staring at him with a confused and furrowed expression.

 

"What are you trying to say, Damon... That I did this?" Stefan interjects quickly, not liking the look Damon is giving him.

 

"You wanted her out of town!" Damon accuses hotly and is rebutted when Stefan snaps back.

 

"No, I wanted you out of town. In fact, I was willing to help you find the Grimoire so you could rescue Katherine and then leave town altogether."

 

"Then how did they gain access to vervain?" Damon yells from across the room. He flashes right in front of Stefan, his eyes blazing with anger. He grabs a fistful of his shirt and slams his brother into a wall, holding him up.

 

He snarls, barely restraining himself. "Don't tell me you didn't orchestrate it! Those chains that held her down were laced with vervain. I know it. Heck, I got slapped with it and it was a bitch! The tomb vampires wouldn't have known where to find vervain, or have any knowledge as to what the current year is. You use their revenge as a means of distraction. Now. Where. Is. She?"

 

Stefan shoves his deranged brother off of him and speeds down the stairs to put some distance between them both.

 

"You got this all wrong, Damon. I didn't do it! You're not thinking straight!" He blocks a punch to his jaw.

 

"Oh, my thoughts are clear. It makes sense. Everything fits!" Damon points and accuses loudly. He ticks his fingers off. "One, We're the only ones with access to vervain, idiot! Two, We are the only ones who know Katherine is alive, with the exception of Elena and Anna."

 

He sees the protest forming on Stefan's lips and silences it with a dark glare. "Anna has already left town with her mother. I checked so don't bother trying to worm your way out. Elena was clueless and so very confused when I asked Bonnie to do a locator spell to find Katherine. And three, it just so happens that the locket decides to do a Houdini? You're lying to me, Stefan! Every piece of evidence is pointing straight at you. Just admit you did it, you god damn fucker!"

 

* * *

A soft feminine gasp echoes loudly, abruptly disrupting the heated tension in the room. Stefan turns behind to find Elena Gilbert staring at him disbelievingly. She had stopped by the boarding house when Damon had failed to show up. Caroline had immediately jumped onto the-I-told-you-so rant wagon and Bonnie had defended herself with the fact that he had seemed rather desperate and out of sorts.

 

Here she is, a good half an hour ago, waiting patiently by the front porch steps after ringing the doorbell. Both the Salvatore cars were parked in the driveway so they were probably busy doing their own thing. But they should have heard her pressing the button incessantly with their super enhanced hearing.

 

She decides to let herself in;, knowing the brothers never lock the front door, and because she was tired of standing awkwardly on the porch like a fool. She shuts the front door gently and trudges slowly towards the source of the commotion which sounded like Damon yelling at the top of his lungs from upstairs.

 

She was halfway towards the stairs when a bundle of blur speeds down and into the hallway. The brothers were too busy fighting each other to notice her.

 

Stefan's voice pulls her out of her inner thoughts. "Elena... What are you doing here?"

 

Elena ignores his question after over-hearing Damon accusing Stefan. "Is it true?"

 

After Damon had informed her that Katherine had been taken, she'd spent the rest of the afternoon wracked with concern and guilt. The desire to know overwhelmed her because it was partially her fault and just bad timing. But at the same time, she had begun accustomed to Katherine's playful sassiness.

 

Elena wrings her hands together in distress as she studies the brothers in the hallway. "How could you-" Take her away from me!

 

She wants to vent her concern for Katherine at Stefan but the compulsion placed on her made it impossible. So Elena settles for taking a stride to Stefan, who thinks he's defending her from Damon, and slaps him with an open palm.

 

His face turns to the side for a second and then he looks back at her with a hurt expression. Her palm tinges in pain but she feels just a bit better. She shouts, "She's the only piece of history I have left!"

 

Oddly, the sentence escapes past her lips. Elena blinks after she realizes that she had said that aloud. She remembers Katherine mentioning loop holes to her compulsion. The older vampire didn't want anyone to learn of their friendship so voicing her concern for her was out of the question, but if Elena made it about her like what she did earlier, the compulsion wouldn't strangle her.

 

Stefan continues to claim innocence but Damon, having had enough of his lies, snaps his neck in front of Elena who jumps in shock. She watches silently as Damon drags his unconscious brother to another set of stairs leading to the basement. She hesitantly follows Damon down and watches him drop Stefan into one of the smaller cells. He bolts the door shut and lets his head bang against the metal bars of the cell.

 

Quietly, Elena asks. "So what's the plan?"

 

Damon closes his eyes in defeat and replies softly, "I don't know, Elena. I don't know anymore."


	12. Humbag

 

**_Humbug (noun) - a person or an object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest._ **

 

Over the span of the week since Stefan had been thrown into the basement cellar, Elena had stopped by more often after school to see if any progress had been made. Damon had spoken with Sheriff Forbes to ask if she had seen or heard anything suspicious. However, the Sheriff had thanked him instead and informed him that the town was peaceful and that there had been no sightings of any unusual occurrences of 'animal' attacks or missing people.

 

Today, Elena decided to visit Stefan in the cellar to see if he was willing to talk. Damon had given up interrogating him and had gone back to drowning himself in his bottle of whiskey. The first few times she had stopped him from over-drinking but it had only led him to lashing out at her. Since then, she had left him to his own misery.

 

Elena opens the freezer and takes out the only remaining blood bag. She pours some into a mug and puts it into the microwave to heat the cold liquid. Once done, she passes Damon by and brings it with her to the basement.

 

She stops behind the door and hears her name called hoarsely. "Elena," Stefan coughs weakly from behind the steel-bolted door. Carefully, she places the steaming mug precariously between the metal bars. He accepts the mug gratefully and shivers from the lack of warmth. Her forehead crinkles in concern and she has to remind herself that she's here to obtain information about Katherine's whereabouts, not to play mother-hen. Yet something niggles at the back of her mind; _what if he was innocent and this is all a big mistake?_

 

He pleads with her again; it's the same, continuous, like a broken record, and honestly, she's starting to feel a bit fed up hearing the same phrase again and again. She holds her hand up tiredly and he quietens. Her question throws him off completely. He thought she was going to let him out. "Why do you hate Katherine so much?"

 

She sighs when he begins to tell her about all the mind games she had played against them. He ends with a warning, "You can't trust her, Elena. Katherine always has something up her sleeve. You have to believe me. Everything she does has an ulterior motive that benefits her and her alone."

 

* * *

Elena leaves the basement, torn between wanting to trust that Katherine isn't the selfish, manipulative bitch Stefan describes her as. Damon fully believes she came back for him. Was Katherine still pitting the brothers against each other? That this was just some fancy ploy to entertain herself... and if it's true, where did she fit in? _What could Katherine possibly want with me?_

 

Her thoughts take her back to the beginning while she attempts to process Stefan's warning. Despite her sassy and sometimes, sarcastic remarks, Katherine had gone out of her way to save her - the car crash (Katherine could easily have pulled her out of the car and left her by the side of the road,) the vampire posing as the pizza delivery guy (she could have pretended that he wasn't there and left through the window), and handing over the Grimoire to save Jeremy's life instead of skipping town with it.

 

Selfish isn't what a person would describe the older vampire to be; maybe in the past she had been a different person. _But people can change._

 

Maybe Katherine wasn't that same person anymore. Maybe she’s changed and Stefan is clinging onto that old tune because he still might have some unresolved feelings for her vampire double? _Why would you date another girl who looked just like your ex?_ She never understood his reasoning.

 

Elena finds herself wandering aimlessly into rooms she had never been in. She stepped into one looked to be a small library of sorts. Bookshelves full of books in every nook and cranny lined the walls. She randomly runs her fingers over the dusty rows of unmarked books and sneezes when she accidentally inhales some dust.

 

Still sniffling, she chooses a random book off the shelf and sits on a worn, sagging, but very comfortable armchair. The unmarked book cover had dog ears at the corners. She opens the paper-thin cover and begins to flip through. The more pages she turns, it starts to dawn on her that this journal held personal entries of the Salvatore ancestors.

 

Glancing around the small, cramped room that she now knew to be a mini heritage storage of sorts, an epiphany dawns on her as she flips through the journal.

 

_The diary!_

 

Stefan had mentioned that he kept a diary to record his memories. It was during the first time she’d met him, she had been in the cemetery visiting her parents' graves and writing in her own diary.

 

Stowing the worn journal back in its respective slot, Elena rushes up the stairs and into Stefan's messy room; courtesy of Damon. She spots a thick, worn brown journal lying on a circular desk. She picks it up, flips to the last page, and begins to read. Her face turns pale and her eyes widen in horror as words detailing plans for her are etched into her mind.

 

_He wouldn't do that_ ; she can't believe what she's reading.

 

His neat, cursive handwriting mocks back at her. Her hands tremble so much that the diary slips out of its shaking grasp; her legs become jelly-like and she collapses to the ground, missing the desk chair completely.

 

She wants to scream but no noise escapes her lips. Never had she felt so drained, empty and utterly paralyzed. She doesn't know how much time passed; or how she managed to walk without stumbling down the stairs to where Damon is seated and staring into the fireplace, lost in his own misery.

 

It takes Elena several minutes to work her vocal chords. The words come off as hollow as they slip past her quivering lips. "I know where they took Katherine."

 

Damon turns in his seat and takes in her tear-streaked ashen facial expression. She had been crying. He doesn't know how to comfort her so he hands her his glass of scotch while she wordlessly exchanges Stefan's diary for it. Elena downs the remainder and coughs harshly at the liquid burning down her throat. Damon's face darkens as his eyes dart across the page, confirming his accusations.

 

Damon stands abruptly, nearly knocking Elena over. He takes long, fast strides forcing her to jog to keep up.

 

"Where are you going?" says, nearly tripping over her own feet trying to keep up with him.

 

He replies grimly, "I know somebody who can help." He turns and catches her by the wrist. "You're not coming with me, Elena. It’s too dangerous."

 

"But-"

 

Damon silences her with a glare. "Don't make me compel you because I will and you're not going to like it. Now. Stay. Here."

 

* * *

Mystic Falls H.S.

 

Alaric Saltzman feels a sudden breeze past him by whilst in the middle of grading papers. _That’s odd._

 

Alaric turns to look at the windows that were shut tight. Some of the papers fly off his desk and he quickly slaps his palm down over them. The moment he manages to find a heavyweight to place on top of the papers, a blur speeds towards him and stops at his desk. It was none other than Damon Salvatore.

 

He sighs tiredly, not interested for the vampire's remarks. "Go away Damon. I have papers to grade and not-"

 

He is rudely interrupted by a desperate plea. "I need your help."

 

_Since when did the vampire plead?_

 

He eyes Damon suspiciously. "Why should I help you? You killed my wife. You killed me!"

 

Damon cocks a brow and smirks. "But you bounced right back up. Did you really think I killed your wife? I turned her after she begged me to. Therefore, she's alive, just a bit undead... if you care about the logistics."

 

Alaric just stares at him. _He turned Isobel. She's like him now, a vampire._

 

"So where is she now?"

 

"Dude, like I cared to ask where she was going. Look, I can ask around but I need you to help rescue someone. Just get me inside and I'll do the rest."

 

* * *

Near the forest sits a lone house with a smaller one attached to it. Damon watches as Alaric rings the doorbell nervously. He isn't invited inside by greeting but as a silent gesture. He steps inside and one of the vampires closes the front door.

 

Damon speeds to the only side door and waits by the porch. Moments later, Alaric comes out with the owner of the house. Damon compels her to answer all of his questions. Satisfied with the answers, he motions Alaric to bring the woman outside and then snaps her neck.

 

Alaric grabs his arm, horrified at the outcome and hisses, "You're not supposed to kill her. Can't you compel-"

 

Damon brushes him off and heads inside. "It doesn't work that way."

 

They take out as many vampires as they can. With Alaric carrying his own weight, Damon finishes and clears the entire house. All that was left were dead bodies with hearts ripped out from their chests.

 

Quickly, they rush to the cellar basement, stake ready in hand, only to find bodies of snapped necks and missing limbs and organs scattered along the dimly lit corridor. Damon yells for Katherine as he moves while stepping around the bloodied organs.

 

She steps into the light and murmurs quietly, "I'm here. Stop yelling. You're giving me a migraine." Her clothes are torn and bloodied but she showed no signs of collapsing. Damon moves immediately and engulfs her in a crushing hug. He breathes a sigh of unadulterated relief and kisses her forehead. "You're fine. Alive. I thought I’d lost you."

 

She replies sassily, "I'm 500 yrs old Damon. What did you expect to find?" She looks past him and sees the guy Damon supposedly killed, was standing a ways back, looking anywhere but at them.... but he keeps glancing at her. She supposed she looked too much like Elena.

 

"Let's go home."

 

* * *

Damon returns to the boarding house during the night and Elena rushes towards them in worry. He comes in carrying an unconscious Katherine through the door, bridal style. "What happened?"

 

"Blood. She needs blood. They’ve have been starving her. 500 my ass. Damn it! We don't have any more blood bags," Damon huffs angrily.

 

Elena rolls up her sleeve and exposes her wrist. She carefully questions the dark-haired vampire as the compulsion prevented showing her concern to Katherine. "Will this do?"

 

Damon leads Elena to his room and lowers an unconscious Katherine in the middle. He takes one end and motions Elena to take the other. He pierces her flesh with his fangs and she hovers her wrist above Katherine whose fangs automatically sink into the delicate flesh upon acknowledging its intoxicating crimson liquid.

 

Elena lets out a hitched gasp as she starts to feel faint, and her heartbeat thumps loudly in her ears. Katherine halts her drinking and snaps her eyes open as she takes in her surroundings. She's no longer in the dusty cellar but safe in Damon's arms, with Elena lying next to her and breathing a bit too shallowly.

 

"K-Katherine," Elena's teeth chatters and she shivers involuntarily. Katherine notices the imperceptible shiver and narrows her eyes. Shifting out of Damon's warm embrace, she reaches for the younger girl and wraps an arm securely around Elena's shivering frame. Her skin feels so palpably cold that Katherine ends up spooning Elena to bridge the distance.

 

Katherine tears open an artery with a fingernail, and firmly but gently nudges her bleeding wrist against Elena's lips as a silent offering. Her hazel eyes hold hers as Elena opens her mouth a little wider to drink from her. Her other arm pulls the heavy duvet up to cover them both before she goes back to wrapping Elena tightly.

 

With the vampire's blood circulating in the human's veins replenishing her blood cells and being in Katherine's snug embrace, Elena's eyelids flutter close and she drifts off, exhausted both physically and emotionally.

 

As her heartbeat starts to slow to a steady beat, Katherine mutters quietly, "Should have stopped me."

 

It was too close. Elena would be dead if she had taken another gulp. Then everything she had done would be wasted. _I only have one shot at this. I can't afford to screw it up._

 

She resists growling at Damon's indifferent tone as he drawls. "She volunteered to be a human blood bag and you needed blood."

 

Katherine doesn't reply. Instead she hugs Elena a little tighter and concentrates on warming her up with their shared body heat.

 

 


	13. Thanking You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First series is now completed. Proceed onto Sweet Cruelty~ Bahaha! *Insert evil laughter*

Elena wakes up in her bed, tucked securely in her own comforter. She turns and curls up on her side. Her face nuzzles into her pillow and could have sworn she smelt Katherine’s scent. The older vampire must have brought her back while she was asleep in Damon’s bed, and then decided to lie down next to her.

 

Part of her wished Katherine stayed and the other part was glad she didn’t. It was weird enough to be embraced by your look-a-like who wasn’t your biological twin but the vampire was at least 500 years old and she was only 17.

 

_So why do I feel comfortable being around her?_ It’s supposed to be freaky, crazy and downright creepy... yet it didn’t feel that way.

 

Elena doesn’t know what to think but one thing is certain: she feels a connection with the vampire and the feeling is so incomprehensible that it kind of creeps her out. She closes her eyes and it doesn’t take long to fall into a dreamless stupor.

 

Four days pass after Katherine’s kidnapping and Elena falls back to her normal routine; she goes to school, hangs out with her friends, has cheer-leading practice, and then returns home to help Aunt Jenna with dinner. She doesn’t run into any more trouble involving vampires.

 

It’s Friday late afternoon and Elena doesn’t have any plans. She had just finished cheer-leading practice and had driven herself home. Sighing, she drops her car keys into the wooden tray after shutting the door gently. She trudges upstairs slowly with her book bag gently swaying side to side.

 

Upon reaching her bedroom, she drops her bag onto the chair and then smoothly tugs the scrunchy out of her tight ponytail, letting her sweat-sheened hair down. Frowning into the mirror at the straightness, Elena ponders attempting to curl them herself someday and then lets out another long sigh and heads for the shared bathroom to take a nice, lukewarm shower. She grabs a new set of clothes from the wardrobe and disappears inside the bathroom.

 

She strips completely and steps into the shower, leaving her clothes in a messy heap on the bathroom-tiled floor. She takes her time adjusting the temperature so as to ensure the shower spray would be just right.

 

Her hands reaches for her apple-scented shampoo and pumps it until they gather a generous amount of gel. Together, they knead and massage her scalp, lathering a sudsy foam. They then move towards the bath gel and grab her pink loofah. Elena scrubs her body starting from her neck and moves downwards, methodically covering her naked wet body with a thin layer of creamy foam.

 

Feeling satisfied, she turns on the shower spray and steps under the cascading rain-like spray, washing away the soap suds. Her hands rinse the shampoo lather out of her hair and angles her face upwards, letting the lukewarm water caress her. Even after the suds had completely washed off her body, she stays under the spray for a moment longer, easing the tension in her shoulders and back.

 

With her eyes closed and the shower spray temporarily dulling her senses, her ears fail to pick up a slight rustling of the plastic shower curtain being opened from the back. Elena feels another presence, but before she can process the thought, another pair of hands rest gently on her shoulders.

 

She jumps in shock and tries to turn around but is shushed by a soft familiar voice, much like warm breath ghosting past Elena’s ear. Slender fingers dig into her shoulder blades, finding the human’s tight knots easily by the way Elena moans. They begin their work by adding the right amount of pressure onto the spots with such precision, that it has Elena humming in satisfaction.

 

They don’t stop their ministrations on her shoulder blades at Elena’s content sigh. Nimble fingers move upward slightly to the back of her neck, paying the area the same undivided attention. Unbeknownst to Elena Gilbert, an invisible smirk etches across her double’s face as a pair of eyes marvels her nakedness from behind.

 

A finger trails sensually down her spine, sending Elena into an involuntary shiver. Her double makes use of the moment of weakness and the younger girl is pressed against the cool wall tiles by another heated body. A hand snakes towards the younger girl’s stomach and she trembles nervously from the not so innocent touch. Elena barely feels the shower spray being turned off, because the hand is back and it spreads open like a starfish onto her toned belly, a finger dipping into her belly button causing her to emit a soft gasp.

 

She finds herself being moved and re-positioned to another side of the bathroom wall. Her back touches the cool tiles and she finds herself blinking owlishly at the sight of a smirking Katherine Pierce. Her eyes trace the vampire’s naked body, from her ankles up to around her calves, her thighs, pausing momentarily at the waxed mound that had not a single strand of hair in sight, and then snapping them back firmly on Katherine’s face. The smirk on Katherine’s face widens as Elena turns bright red, having been caught in the act. Coyly, she licks her lips and teases her doppelganger, “Like what you see?”

 

Her hands attempt to protect her own modesty from the vampire who chuckles at Elena amusingly. Katherine gently grasps the younger girl’s wrists and pulls them away. “Our bodies are the same, Elena. There is nothing I haven’t seen before,” she chides sweetly.

 

Realizing that there is no way she could stop the vampire, Elena’s arms fall limply to her sides. Katherine roams her hands towards her erect nipples and pinches them, causing Elena to softly gasp and blush lightly. She leaves butterfly kisses trailing down to her stomach and as she kneels, her hands resting on Elena’s hips; her thumb tracing invisible circular spirals down her hip subconsciously.

 

Her other hand finds Elena’s center and a slender finger slips in between her legs. It caresses the seam of her folds intimately and the action sends a pulse of electricity into her core. Elena shuts her eyes and turns away from Katherine while a soft breathy moan escapes her throat.

 

“W-Wh-What are y-you do- Oh... my god!”

 

Her legs involuntarily spread further to give the vampire more room. Her open palm starts pressing against the younger girl’s exposed and jutting clit peeking out from its hood. It rubs the nub in a circular motion and adds a bit of pressure, causing Elena to hitch and moan, her fingers twitching as she spasms from the uncontrollable pleasure. Arousal pooling deep within her center, she is unable to control her voice and breathy moans echo loudly off the tiled walls. Her hips buck off the wall but are firmly pushed back into position.

 

In midst of half-panting and moaning, she manages to gasp out “Oh... W-why are you... Ahh... Do-doing t-this?”

 

Her eyes fly open and her mouth forms a frozen oh-expression as two fingers slip into her dripping, steaming hot pussy and begin thrusting slowly.

 

“Look at me, Elena,” Katherine’s lilting voice floats to her ears and her head crooks down to obey.

 

She stares transfixed at Katherine who is staring back at her lustily. Kneeling before Elena, her fingers work determinedly between Elena’s trembling legs while the other holds her hip in place.

 

Having the younger girl’s undivided attention, she licks her lips at the sound of Elena’s whimper. “I wanted to thank you, Elena. You knew the risks, knew I could have easily drained you and yet you offered your blood.”

 

Katherine’s thumb applies a bit of pressure on her sensitive nub, causing Elena to groan, her inner thigh muscles contracting as they spasm and quiver. Her back arches and more pressure is added to keep her in place. Katherine doesn’t waste time and captures the clit with the tip of her tongue. Her mass of curls is gripped tightly from above while she continues her assault of the doppelganger’s sweet honeypot. She licks the whole length and then thrusts furiously into her core. Her blunt teeth grazes Elena’s clit every now and then.

 

“Come for me, Elena. Come now,” Katherine coos between licks and reaches down between her own to pleasure herself. All that action has left her wanting for some too but tonight is Elena’s night.

 

Elena’s whole body writhes in quaking spasms as she comes, screaming for Katherine. Her back arches completely off the wall and her hips bucks out despite the firm hold. Her legs quiver and she would have collapsed if it wasn’t for the older vampire’s support. A thin sheen of sweat coats her forehead and her cheek rests against the cool bathroom tiles, still breathing heavily from the tremendous orgasm.

 

Still out of it, Elena barely hears the shower spray being turned on and the shower head being detached. A nice, cool jet of water hits her from waist down, rinsing away all evidence of her juices. Her mound is cupped and caressed gently as the cooling spray hits her.

 

The shower nozzle moves upwards towards her toned abdomen and then to her shoulders. Her senses return slowly and she blearily opens her eyes to find Katherine holding her gaze.

 

The seductress gently turns Elena around and washes the sweat from the younger girl’s back. She stows the shower nozzle and switches the water off. The shower curtain is drawn back and Elena is helped out of the bath tub. Katherine is already clothed in a dark top and skinny jeans, topped with black boots.

 

In her hands hold Elena’s towel which is then wrapped securely around her petite body. The vampire informs her softly that she’d be waiting downstairs and leaves Elena to her privacy

 

Elena stands there, towel draped around her and her body still tingling from the recent orgasm. Her mind is still trying to process what had just transpired. She snaps out of it moments later when she remembers that Katherine said she would be waiting downstairs and proceeds to rummage through her drawers for something proper.

 

* * *

Katherine only has to wait for a while before Elena shyly makes her way down the stairs, dressed in a new outfit. She smiles sweetly at the younger girl and opens the front door.

 

“Come,” she gestures for Elena to step out.

 

Her doppelganger blinks and pursues her lips. “Where are we going?”

 

Katherine just loops her finger and pulls at one of Elena’s jeans belt loop, tugging her doppelganger closer.

 

Her lip curl inward revealing a coy smile as she replies, “I told you, I’d like to thank you... Take you out to dinner and then maybe watch a movie together.”

 

Elena stammers and blushes at Katherine’s statement. “L-like a date?”

 

Katherine lets loose an airy chuckle and saunters towards the front porch. She unlocks her car with a click of the button and tosses her lock of curls as she turns back to Elena.

 

“Are you coming, Elena?” She doesn’t need to check if her doppelganger is following. By the time she has walked around to the driver’s seat, Elena is already seated and waiting for her in the passenger seat, her hands fastening around the seat buckle in nervous anticipation.

 

* * *

The pair enter the diner together, with Katherine leading the way. She slides into one of the corner booths and Elena takes the seat opposite of her. The waitress arrives shortly to take their orders - one spaghetti aglio e olio for Elena and a chocolate milkshake for Katherine. Their food arrives minutes later and Elena’s stomach grumbles loudly, earning an amused glance from her double. She takes a sip of her milkshake and watches Elena twirl the spaghetti with her fork which disappears into her mouth.

 

Halfway through her spaghetti, she notices Katherine glancing at her delicious steaming plate and shyly questions, “Would you like some?”

 

The older vampire finishes her milkshake and pretends to contemplate. There is a glimmer of mischief twinkling in her eyes when she responds with a bemused smirk. “I prefer my food alive.”

 

It doesn’t really surprise Katherine when Elena’s brows furrow together in thought and then slowly pulls her sleeves back to offer her wrist. Her eyes darken partially as a warning and she waits for her doppelganger to pull her hand away.

 

When it doesn’t, “I could easily kill you, Elena,” she says lowly.

 

The younger girl’s outstretched hand trembles slightly but she doesn’t retract her offer. Her head shakes slowly but it’s her earnest response that derails Katherine. “But you won’t. If you wanted me to drain me, you could have continued drinking on that night but you stopped. You healed me back with your blood and... I trust you, Katherine.”

 

_I trust you..._

 

These three words stump Katherine, derailing thoughts of future plans already plotted out for the doppelganger. It bears so many responsibilities despite its fragility; it’s not to be given easily and freely but her doppelganger sitting just opposite of her, inches away, offering herself to be fed on. She’s not sure if Elena Gilbert is stupid and plain naive, or if the doppelganger managed to see something in her that even a five-hundred-year-old vampire was unable to see.

 

Pulling herself out of her inner dilemma, her hand reaches for Elena’s outstretched offered wrist and pushes it onto the table, her thumb caressing her inner wrist. “Would you rather scream, laugh or cry?”

 

Her sudden change in topic confuses Elena to no end as she ponders what prompted the swift change. _Was it something I said?_

 

Elena didn’t want to cry anymore; she had spent her whole summer grieving for the loss of her parents. She certainly didn’t enjoy the horrors that came along meeting the Salvatore brothers and discovering vampires existence; all the unfortunate terrifying incidents of being stuck in a tomb full of mummified sleeping vampires and then finally finding the truth about Stefan’s true colors; she thinks to herself that she might be too desensitized to horror movies.

 

Finally coming to a conclusion about Katherine’s question over, she responds with an “I’d rather laugh.”

 

Katherine quirks a smile which Elena returns, having warmed up to the vampire. They leave the diner after paying for their meal and take a short walk to the cinema, located just nearby. She nudges Elena towards the popcorn and drinks vendor while she goes towards the counter to get their tickets. The first thing Elena discovers upon entering the cinema is that it’s just the two of them and movie employees. Not a single person in sight which she finds strange; that it’s a Friday night and there should be other people hanging out too. She muses that maybe they had probably watched another earlier showing.

 

She heads to the popcorn vendor and orders a medium sized popcorn and drinks combo. The vendor nods and scoops a generous amount of fresh popcorn into the carton box and fills her choice of beverage and caps the drink for her. She makes to pay the vendor and he informs her in a monotone dull voice that it’s been taken care of. Blinking at the employee’s odd response, she turns and jumps slightly at Katherine who had come up from behind her.

 

She asks slowly, “Did you compel all of them?”

 

Katherine just gives her a signature smirk and guides her to the theater room. Settling down in their seats, Katherine pops a popcorn into her mouth in spite of Elena’s questioning stare.

 

“I might have compelled them for the night,” she admits and Elena just shakes her head at the vampire’s detailed planning.

 

Elena teases, “You know, a simple thank-you would have sufficed. You didn’t need to go through all the trouble.”

 

“Probably,” Katherine shrugs before smiling at her widely. “But where would the fun in that be?”

 

The theater room darkens as the screen lengthens to show the opening credits of Let’s Be Cops, a comedy movie Elena had chosen. Halfway through the movie, Katherine gets bored of watching the screen and decides watching her doppelganger was far more exciting. Too engrossed into the movie, Elena laughs at key moments and is completely oblivious to the older vampire watching her with a bemused smile. She leans over to Katherine, flashing her a quick smile as she reaches to grab a handful of popcorn, before turning her attention back to the movie.

 

* * *

After the movie, the pair got back into the car and Katherine drove Elena back home. She parks the car in front of the driveway and rests an elbow on the side door, crooking her arm to let her head rest on her palm.

 

“Thanks, it was fun hanging out with you.” Elena fidgets in her seat, “I… I guess I should head back inside.”

 

Her hand grasps the car door latch and pulls it towards her. The passenger side door swings ajar but instead of Elena stepping out, her head turns back towards Katherine who looks on curiously.

 

Elena falters slightly, and then summoning whatever inner courage she has, she plants an awkward chaste kiss on the vampire’s cheek and steps out before Katherine could comment. She reaches her porch and turns back to find Katherine in the driver’s seat with an indescribable expression. She opens the front door and heads inside.

 

Closing the door with a gentle click, Aunt Jenna’s disappointed voice floats from the next room to Elena’s ears. “I don’t set a lot of rules, Elena. Not with you. I expected you to inform me if you were going out.”

 

Elena tucks her hair behind her ear as she turns to face Aunt Jenna pursuing her lips. “It’s past midnight. You weren’t home; none of your friends knew where you were. At least Jeremy called home to inform he’s staying over at a friend’s place. So where were you, Elena? I thought we were closer than that.”

 

She sighs, trying to figure out how to speak around the compulsion. “I was out...with a friend,” she replies vaguely and tries to head upstairs.

 

“What friend? Is it the same friend who drove you back when you crashed your car, skipped school, and then arrived home a night later?” Aunt Jenna moves to the staircase, forcing Elena to face her. Not believing her niece, she continues. “I trusted you to tell me the truth. What really happened that night?”

 

Elena whirls around quickly. “Now is not a good time for you to talk about lies.”

 

She moves to the right but is immediately blocked by Aunt Jenna who isn’t quite finished. “Don’t do that. Don’t you turn it back on me. I didn’t do anything.”

 

Elena retorts, feeling defensive suddenly. “Okay. Here’s a question: am I adopted?”

 

Her aunt’s eyes widen and Elena is met with silence. “I trust you to tell me the truth too, Jenna. How could you not tell me? I thought we were closer than that.”

 

She takes the opportunity to jog upstairs ignoring Aunt Jenna’s protests and shuts her bedroom door loudly. She falls backward onto her bed and closes her eyes.

 

_Does the whole family know about the adoption? Why didn’t they tell me? What happened to my biological parents?_ The questions fill her mind and she mentally tries to push them back.

 

It was had been such a nice night, and now, after confronting Jenna about the truth, an awful feeling wells up in the pit of her stomach, causing her to feel horrible.

 

Getting up from her bed, she heads to the bathroom and gets ready for bed. A minute later, she hears a chime coming from her phone lying on her pillow.

 

A couple of finger swipes and tapping, she finds a text message stating: _Sweet dreams, princess!_

 

Her lips quirk into a smile as she reads it, knowing the sender could only be from Katherine. She saves the number into her contact list immediately and curls in on her side, with her eyelids closing gently and a smile on her face.

 

* * *

Elsewhere in Mystic Falls, a man sits on an armchair in his loft apartment, staring at a picture of his beautiful wife, Isobel Fleming. He gives the portrait a long, hard look and then reaches for his phone in front of him.

 

Scrolling down the list of contacts, he taps on a contact with a blocked number. He dials the number and then waits patiently until the call connects.

 

A click alerts him of the receiver picking up and Alaric says, “I found the doppelganger.”

 

Not missing a beat, the receiver replies smoothly, “Good. Make contact.” The line goes dead immediately.

 


End file.
